Every state has hundreds of program databases. There is the DMV for driver licenses, Medicaid, WIC and poverty programs, educational programs – which one is the most correct?
No state can answer that question.
Some are better than others, but there is no APEX Database which is the “single source of truth” against which any new program or legacy program can be compared.
An Apex Database focuses on identities and addresses. The Apex Database is the one to which the state can point as the most accurate.
State program fraud – if it occurs, does so with identities and addresses. Subsequent transactions tie to those two attributes.
Working with states, the Fractal team is helping them build their Apex database – and it could be any of the current programs. A state can choose to make its voter roll its Apex Database – insuring other state databases are compared with it because it is the most accurate.
Fractal loads the voter database and compares it with the county property tax records – which are the absolute best address records in the state. The county tax records benefit from county assessors driving around every week to see if someone built a shed on a lot. If so, the tax bill is adjusted – upward.
Since the county gets its revenue from this data – they have a stake in making sure the data is accurate and timely. The homeowner or business owner has an equal stake in making sure they are not over charged – thus there is an adversarial relationship in place.
Between the homeowner and the tax assessor, there is constant visibility to every property from a vacant lot to a sky scraper.
The value of the property tax records is not from who owns them or lives in them. The value of this data is the extraordinary detail property taxes require. These records show the year the building was built, square footage, number of baths, bedrooms, improvements, type of business – in some counties there are 70 or more attributes.
Using property tax records as one source, among many, to test government programs for fraud or abuse is very powerful. Using them to help create an Apex Database is even more promising.
Our team in working with several states now testing their databases to determine if any is a best candidate to be their Apex Database.