Government does not compute: That the major policy initiative of the Obama administration nearly has been undone by a government website's glitches might come as a shock to many but not to watchers of state government. If North Carolina's experiences are.

• Author: Mooneyham, Scott

any indication, HealthCare.gov's stumbling and bumbling are standard operating procedure when it comes to government and computer systems. It has been that way quite a while, and it doesn't seem to matter who's in charge. In 2006, the N.C. Officer of Information Technology Services found that the final price of five of the state's 10 biggest TT projects of the preceding decade came in 65% over budget, overruns that cost taxpayers $205 million. Seven years later, State Auditor Beth Wood issued a report examining 84 projects that came in more than double their estimated cost, 65% of them plagued by delays.

The project grabbing the most attention this year is NCTracks, the new Medicaid management-information system. If they could, doctors and hospital administrators who depend on it for payment for treating poor patients probably would rename it NCLacks. Its troubled history dates to 2004, when Dallas-based Affiliated Computer Services Inc. got the $171 million contract to build a new system. Two years later, the state canceled the deal, citing breach of contract. It paid $16.5 million for work completed and to settle the lawsuit that ensued. Starting over in 2008, it awarded Falls Church, Va.-based Computer Science Corp. a $365 million contract with an August 2011 deadline. When the system became operational in July 2013, the price had almost doubled. Health-care providers still having problems getting paid would say it's still not operational.

This example isn't unique. Delays beset and complaints dogged North Carolina Window of Information on Student Education--NC WISE--which let school systems manage and parents track student information. Estimated at $54 million, it cost $117 million. Over the course of a decade, North Carolina Families Assessing Services through Technology--NC FAST--has been scuttled, relaunched and is still a headache for social-services recipients. Other major projects include an $42 million administrative-information project for the community-college system that came in at $92 million and the Department of Revenue's Tax Information Management System--TIMS--which has cost more than twice its estimate and is still not fully functional. In this misery, North Carolina has plenty of company. Consider Maine, Ohio and...