California's biggest IT project – one that's supposed to help state government better manage its dollars – has money and staffing problems.

The Financial Information System for California (dubbed FI$Cal, get it?) has cost taxpayers $62.6 million so far, with a final tab estimated at $1.6 billion over 12 years.

Promoters say the system will eventually replace a patchwork of antiquated government computer systems that hinder efficiency.

Think of trying to get an old Commodore computer to sync with an abacus and you're approaching how hard it can be for some departments to share information with each other.

That $1.6 billion estimate, made in 2007, is squishy. State Auditor Elaine Howle said in a report to lawmakers on Tuesday that it's hard to know what FI$Cal will cost, because its funding is uncertain.

Project officials kept it going this year with a loan and a hodgepodge of special fund dollars. They've concluded that a 2008 plan to sell bonds to finance the project is off the table, a victim of the state's economy and "a law that prohibits the use of bonds to finance a budget deficit," Howle's report says.

FI$Cal leaders have some other funding options, like leaning on vendors for credit, paying cash or issuing special bonds with lawmakers' approval. But until there's a solid financing plan, it's impossible to come up with a new cost appraisal, Howle said.

If other state IT projects are any guide, you can bet that $1.6 billion estimate won't get smaller.

CalPERS is more than $500 million into a project that was first estimated at about half that. It launched two years late in September and still needed tweaking.

The Administrative Office of the Courts predicted more than 10 years ago that it could link far-flung courthouses with a single computerized case management system for $260 million.

Last year Howle said the price tag will be more like $2 billion by the time the system fires up … in 2016. And a $34 million data system that tracks students statewide fell two years behind schedule. School district users complained about problems with entering information.

With so much uncertainty, it follows that several of FI$Cal's key managers have bailed in the last year. Gov. Jerry Brown exempted it from last year's hiring freeze, but 32 percent of the project's 161 full-time positions remained vacant last month, Howle said.

You'd think with the state downsizing that plenty of migrating state workers would fill up those slots, but we're talking about jobs requiring specific skill sets. That makes it tougher to plug in employees from other departments.

FI$Cal wants to borrow skilled tech help, Howle says, but this will be a challenge since departments with those kinds of employees have "competing priorities."

The staffing shortage is forcing FI$Cal into more private contracting – often a very pricey option – to fill in the gaps.

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Call The Bee's Jon Ortiz, (916) 321-1043. Read his blog, The State Worker, at sacbee.com/blogs.

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