State's use of technology ranks No. 1
By JEFF DRUCHNIAK
STATE CAPITOL BUREAU

Illinois is ranked first in an annual study gauging how state governments use computer and digital technology to serve the public.

Illinois tied for the top spot with Kansas in the 2001 survey, after finishing fourth in 2000. Despite the current budget crisis, the state apparently has moved ahead of many others in technology use in just a few years. In the 1998 survey, Illinois was at the other end of the pack, bottoming out at 49th.

Since then, Gov. George Ryan's administration created the Illinois Technology Office, which oversees, activates and expands government programs involving technology.

By 2001, Illinois residents and companies could have access to a variety of state services online or by using other digital technology, which the annual rankings found especially impressive.

For instance, Illinois residents could file their state or federal taxes over the Web, by phone or (if they use personal computers) on a software disk.

Businesses and professionals can comply with a variety of commercial regulations online and avoid paperwork. And social service benefits, such as welfare and food stamps, are distributed electronically via scan cards with a magnetic strip.

And more than 5,000 schools, universities, local governments and other bodies have their high-speed Internet access merged onto the Illinois Century Network, a degree of consolidation that is not without its snags.

"Every time the (university) network goes down, they tell us it's because the problem's in Champaign or Chicago or Carbondale," said Fawn Bronyk, a senior at the University of Illinois at Springfield.

The state's chief technology officer, Mary Reynolds, said her agency has no intention of resting on its laurels.

Sometime this year, she said, state agencies will have access to public key codes that will allow encoded information to be verified.

These could be used on data in government transactions, such as tax and business license forms, that people can already file electronically.

"This will also provide an infrastructure for digital signatures," Reynolds said, "so the new software will enhance both security and accessibility."

Currently, after filing forms online, citizens often have to mail their signature later to confirm the data they originally sent.

The software for the upgrade already exists, and the task for state technology officials is to deploy it for the Web systems of interested agencies.

Although budget cuts continue to loom to address the state's revenue shortfall, Reynolds is optimistic that technology services will not be threatened.

"Many of these programs are initiatives that improve the efficiency with which the state delivers its services," she said, "so they are valuable in the sense that they cost money initially to implement but, in fact, should save us some money in the long run."

One major program that the researchers behind the report singled out for praise does not fall into the moneysaving category. The I-WIN network enables state and local police and parole agents to retrieve information quickly from a cellular digital database.

The return on that system is entirely in the form of heightened police abilities.

The annual rankings are the work of two nonprofit technology research groups, the Silicon Valley-based Center for Digital Government and the Progress & Freedom Foundation of Washington, DC