MATRIX may die in Utah

Leavitt, who signed the state up in the MATRIX program to begin with, has refused to comment on MATRIX other than to say he's doesn't want to interfere with Walker's administration. "I'm not going to comment on that," Leavitt said last week. "I'm simply not going to do it."

Walker has hinted she also has little intention of funding the state's participation in the program, given the state's other pressing funding needs.

"The governor has no plans now to ask for any money" in the 2004-2005 budget for MATRIX," Covington said.

"I would agree," said Valentine, "we have many other issues, and based on what we know now, it (MATRIX) doesn't have any priority."

MATRIX has been billed by law enforcement as a quick and efficient means to track criminals using hundreds of confidential and public databases. But it has been vilified by civil libertarians for its potential to monitor the private lives of law-abiding citi- zens.

The program was initiated last summer when Utah and 12 other states signed up for the pilot program to create the super database. Utah began sending its confidential data — driver's licenses, motor vehicle registrations, criminal history and Department of Corrections files — to MATRIX on July 31, and by late August or early September Utah's data had been interfaced with databases from the rest of the participating states.

Including Utah, seven pilot states have now opted out of the program, most citing financial and privacy concerns.

Utah's involvement in the program was kept secret from from all but Leavitt and a handful of public safety insiders.

At the request of GOP leaders, Massey said his staff has scoured previous appropriations acts. "There is no money there for MATRIX. We had no tracking of it at all. That's why (legislative budget staff) didn't update the Executive Appropriations Committee" on MATRIX during last interim, he said.

Verdi White II, Utah's chief of homeland security, said public safety officials just weren't ready yet to make a pitch to lawmakers for state funds this coming year because "we were trying to determine the value (of MATRIX), as we do with all pilot projects. Before we invest a lot of money, we want to know it is worth it — and conceptually, I believe it is a good thing."

White wasn't certain how public safety would have funded the state's participation beyond next August without a budget line-item. Perhaps there would have been federal money to tide the state over until the 2005 legislative session, he said. And certainly there was a plan to meet with lawmakers on Capitol Hill and explain the program and the funding needs.