Nothing ever seems to compute when the state upgrades its computers, and Gov. David Ige has made little headway in changing the calculus.

Two years ago, Ige scrapped a useless new financial software system in the Department of Transportation and sued the now-bankrupt contractor in a likely doomed attempt to recover nearly $14 million the state paid.

That fiasco was mostly on the previous administration, but Ige is presiding over an even more expensive tech horror show of his own in the turmoil surrounding a $60 million computer modernization in the Department of Taxation.

The $60 million price tag isn’t the half of it — literally. This project is to replace a previous $87.5 million tax department computer modernization that was declared outdated before it was finished.

The latest doubts about the tax computer upgrade started in the 2017 Legislature, which withheld $18 million Ige requested for the next phase after complaints from frustrated taxpayers using the new system to pay excise taxes.

House Finance Chairwoman Sylvia Luke, seething from computer glitches in paying her own excise taxes, predicted massive trouble when individual income taxes go on the new system next year.

In addition to withholding funds, legislators transferred key tax department staff involved in the project to the Office of Enterprise Technology Services, saying it’s not a tax issue but an information technology issue.

Ige seemed to agree; in July, he assigned chief state tech officer Todd Nacapuy to oversee the project.

This drew the ire of tax department employees, and in October, Randy Perreira of the Hawaii Government Employees Association declared a “complete lack of confidence” in Nacapuy and said employees don’t want to be held responsible “for the system’s inevitable failure.”

You never know if such union butt-covering is about substance or turf, but either way, disgruntled employees can cause “inevitable failure” to become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Before this tussle fully played out, Tax Director Maria Zielinski abruptly resigned after it was reported her department had inappropriately interfered with an independent consultant hired to flag problems in the computer upgrade.

Ige called a news conference on Wednesday to introduce his new tax director, veteran public administrator Linda Chu Takayama, raising hopes that for once he’d do what a governor is supposed to do: explain Zielinski’s departure, give a forthright update on the tax computer troubles, credibly address the status with the union and give some sign he understands why big state tech projects keep going awry.

But Ige was Ige, and the best he could come up with was, “Change is hard.”

He’s got about nine months to show let-down voters he’s capable of better leadership and communication than this, or they might decide change is not so hard when they see his name on the ballot for reelection.

Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com.