Idaho Controller Leaves To Become PeopleSoft LobbyistIdaho Controller Leaves To Become PeopleSoft Lobbyist

One of the few elected officials to oversee a governmental computer system is leaving his job to become a lobbyist for PeopleSoft Inc. J.D. Williams, a Democrat who was appointed nearly 14 years ago as Idaho's state controller and elected three times since, said Monday that he's stepping down to become director of state and local government for the ERP vendor.

According to the Idaho Statesman, a daily newspaper in Boise, Williams was among the first state technology leaders to bring a state accounting system online. He also made Idaho the third state to use electronic pay stubs and the first to provide downloads of W-2 tax forms into the software package Turbo Tax. Williams' office also created a Web-based travel system for state workers.

"The power of technology is going to change how government works, how people think, and their relationship to government," Williams told the Statesman. "If you want to sit in your pajamas at 2 a.m. and renew your driver's license, you ought to be able to do it. There's so much we can do to make government work better to improve lives. The best part about it is you save money and you can use it to empower kids by educating them."