Year 2000 Vexes State’s Computers

In California’s bureaucracy, the end of the 20th century is causing severe distress: How to reprogram state computers that never accounted for the year 2000--and how to find up to $100 million to pay for it.

The cost of reprogramming the state’s computers will be at least $50 million, and maybe twice that, a report issued Wednesday by the legislative analyst’s office said.

“Such a conversion is necessary for most of the state’s computer programs which include a date reference because they were written to accommodate only years beginning with a ‘19,’ ” the analyst’s report said. “Consequently, such programs will not perform correctly--or at all--for calculations involving dates occurring after Dec. 31, 1999.”

Virtually everything the state of California does is on computers, from driver’s license renewals to when inspections are scheduled.

Tax debts, of course, also are on computers. The Franchise Tax Board reportedly has a team of 35 people working on the problem, said an aide to Assemblyman Tony Cardenas (D-Sylmar), chairman of a committee on information technology.