Year 2000 Computer Problem Could Cost County $97 Million

The task of teaching all of the computers in the nation’s largest county government how to deal with the year 2000 will cost nearly $97 million, according to a report made public Friday.

Like computers all over the world, the ones that help run Los Angeles County depend on software that won’t know what year it is in 2000. And that could mean massive computer crashes.

Around the world, business and government are expecting to pay billions of dollars in salaries and software to fix the problem.

At the county level, failure to address the problem could mean that employees would be paid too much or too little by computerized payroll systems, and homeowners might be charged the wrong amount in taxes.

Computers hold records in the courts, the welfare system and the county’s massive health care delivery system.

So finding an extra $97 million will be a priority in the cash-strapped county, said Sandy Davis, deputy chief administrative officer.

“It’s extremely important,” Davis said Friday.

According to the report, it will cost nearly $58 million in fiscal year 1997-98 to begin work on the most critical systems, about $37 million the next year and $1.9 million in 1999-2000.

The money will be used for salaries, software and hardware, according to county Chief Information Officer Jon W. Fullinwider, who prepared the report.

County departments have said they will absorb the costs for the first year in their budgets, but will request extra funding through 2000.

Last fall, the Los Angeles Unified School District estimated that it would cost $30 million to $52 million to bring its computers up to the new date.

And last April, county tax collectors said that because computers would not know the difference between 2000 and 1900, the entire system for assessing and collecting taxes would be in jeopardy.