Computers: The Granite State of the Art

In his office he frequently wheels around in a swivel chair to pluck a fact or figure from the IBM PC AT perched behind his big wooden desk. In the backseat of his chauffeured sedan, he taps away on the keyboard of a notebook-size Hewlett-Packard, stopping only when a sharp turn sends the little computer sliding off his knees. At home in bed, he parks the portable computer on his ample lap and reviews financial statistics, occasionally looking up to watch Ted Koppel on ABC's Nightline.

John Sununu, 46, is not just another well-heeled computer buff. He is the Governor of New Hampshire, and the data he pores over so diligently represent the state's $1 billion in annual expenditures. Using the computer and modem in his office in Concord, he can punch in his name and secret password, log on to the state's IBM 4361 mainframe computer, and get a quick reading, in glowing green digits, of the state's financial health: room-and-meal tax returns ($30.3 million as of last November); business profits taxes ($28.4 million); out-of-town travel expenses for the leaders of the legislature ($300). "It is my conviction that one needs to go down to the lowest source to get intimate, unbiased data," says Sununu, glancing at the screen of his desktop machine. "And I'm looking at the full data base [information library]."

The Republican Governor's prowess with computers has become legendary in New Hampshire. When a party worker complained that he was having trouble with his mass mailing program, Sununu spent a few minutes at his keyboard and solved the problem. Reviewing an environmental group's study of the impact of a new dam, Sununu zeroed in on a questionable variable in the calculations and set the record straight. After one of the Governor's eight children complained about a broken keyboard on his own home computer, Sununu scoured around for a replacement part and fixed it himself.

Sununu was inaugurated into the computer age in 1965 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he majored in mechanical engineering and taught himself programming to help expedite his doctoral thesis on fluid mechanics. In 1969 he moved to New Hampshire, added Republican politics to his long list of interests, served in the state legislature, and in 1982 was elected Governor in an upset victory over the Democratic incumbent, Hugh Gallen.

Thanks in part to his computers, Sununu was soon able to deliver on a traditionally unkept campaign promise: he balanced the state budget without new taxes. Using financial analysis software programs to enforce strict fiscal discipline, Sununu turned the $41 million deficit he inherited in 1982 into a record $47.8 million surplus last year. He also streamlined the flow of budgetary data and reorganized New Hampshire's financial reporting systems so that records of all revenue and expenditures were channeled into the state's big IBM mainframe computer. Loading data from the mainframe into desktop machines and analyzing the numbers with Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets, the Governor and his staff can see at a glance where the state's money is going. Last fall, for instance, Sununu's office was able to forecast a shortfall in beer-tax revenues caused by the departure of summer-vacation guzzlers.