>California will begin selling confidential wage data of 14 million of
> its residents to private information companies, car dealers and
> creditors wanting to check an individual's annual income....
The complete story mentions that the state expects to receive about $15 million over 10 years for selling this information. That is less than 11 cents per person in the data base per year and can't amount to anything substantial in the state's revenue. The article also mentions that
"The San Diego County-based Verification of Income and Employment, a joint venture between Santa Ana-based First American Financial Corp. and Norwest Mortgage, is helping start the program.
The company, which worked with the state Legislature for three years to get the law passed, also runs programs in Iowa, Minnesota, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Texas. "
Does anyone know how this company managed to get to the governments of those five states? In the California case, has there been any public outcry? Is this possibly a case of terms limits having unintended consequences, with state legislators facing a bleak, office-less future taking even less care with the interests of the citizens than when they hoped to be reelected?
K.Mickey