Authority: Title 2.1, Chapter 35.2, Article 7, of Code of Virginia.

A. The Council on Information Management, the Department of Information Technology, and all related and affected state agencies and institutions shall not privatize or out-source the services of the State Data Center, or any information systems operated thereon, until the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission completes an examination of the issue, as provided for in Item 14 of this act.

B. There is hereby established the Virginia Technology Infrastructure Fund, as a nongeneral nonreverting special fund, to be administered by the Council on Information Management and to be funded as provided in § 3-1.02E of this act. The purpose of the Fund is to initiate and study special technology projects and needs of state agencies and institutions of higher education.

C. Notwithstanding the provisions of §4-3.02 of this act, the Secretary of Finance may provide interest-free treasury loans, not to exceed $1,000,000 to any agency or institution and not to exceed $10,000,000 in aggregate authorizations, for the purpose of assisting agencies and institutions in bringing their computer information systems into compliance with standards for the century date change which takes place in year 2000. The specific terms and structure of any loan shall be approved by the Secretary of Finance, after consultation with the Chairmen of the House Appropriations and Senate Finance Committees, or their designees. A treasury loan for this purpose shall be considered as bridge financing until permanent financing recommendations are made and approved by the 1998 session of the General Assembly.

D. The Council on Information Management, in conjunction with the Department of Motor Vehicles, the State Police, and representatives from the automatic identification manufacturing industry shall study the feasibility of designing operator licenses, state automobile license plates or license stickers, vehicle registration forms, vehicle inspection stickers, or other similar forms that would include machine-readable scan lines or bar codes that will permit the automatic electronic transmission of information pertaining to the vehicle for which they were issued. This study shall also examine any privacy protection issues, pursuant to § 46.2-208. The Council shall issue a report and recommendations prior to the 1998 Session of the General Assembly.