State computer can't handle full disclosure

Got bugs? A new state computer program has plenty.

While it is designed to enhance campaign finance disclosure, on Monday it left legislators steamed, the lieutenant governor's office apologizing and the news media unable to do much analysis of new disclosures due at 5 p.m.

For example, a feature of the program that was supposed to tally how much a candidate received in contributions was often off by tens of thousands of dollars for each candidate, according to Deseret News comparison of those sums and original forms.

Ditto for totals about how much candidates spent. Ditto for how much political action committees spent, too, or corporations.

"Obviously, we have a bug of some sort," said Mark Thomas, office administrator for Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert, which oversees campaign finance disclosures.

Herbert's office was working on a fix to the computer code, but problems left the Deseret News and other organizations unable — at least on Monday — to trust the summaries for a quick analysis of how much was raised and spent by various groups during the 2008 election.

Also, many frustrated lawmakers were unable to file forms online using the new system — which they had been doing with an older system — so they were resorting to the very old system of submitting paper forms.

As the House GOP caucus griped about the foul-up, Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab, perhaps only half-joking yelled, "Cut their budget."

Rep. Julie Fisher, R-Fruit Heights, said, "I've spent hours on this (lieutenant governor) site. Finally, I had to file a paper copy. They told me to fax it, but then their fax didn't work twice. This is the biggest run-around I've gone through. We're part-time legislators. They should have worked this out, gotten all these errors out beforehand."

Rep. Brad Dee, R-Washington Terrace, said, "I had to file a paper copy, too. They tell me this won't be fixed for a couple of weeks."

Thomas said the new system had been rushed into service, in part, because the old system could not handle changes required in reporting that were mandated by recent changes in law.

"Our old system would not run anymore, with all the changes in the law. We had to push this one out, and had to push it out without all the testing we would have liked," he said. "Again, I apologize."

He noted that forms from most lawmakers, PACs, corporations and political issue committees were either available online or on paper forms in the lieutenant governor's office. But features that tabulate things such as how much they spent for the year individually, or as a group, were not working.