Technology makes state services more available

As the number of state workers shrinks, technology wizards are devising ways to let Iowans access state government services themselves, by computer. Richard Varn, the state’s chief information officer, calls it the Iowa Portal Project.Some state services are already on line, such as nursing home report cards.About 70 percent of nurses currently renew their licenses electronically, and Varn expects other professions to follow suit once their license registration data’s on-line. Governor Tom Vilsack says the state won’t reach his goal of being “100 percent e by 2003”, but there will be more and more on-line services in the coming months.The state’s website is iowaccess.org. Managers also want to create a single state call-in center, but that project’s a bit farther off.