Well, you're right about that, especially the last part.  Although it would still be free as in freedom, just not free as in free beer, as they say.  

To be honest, though, with the need for public accountability and transparency, it's amazing that we haven't made it law to ban proprietary software in government and only allow open source software for public administration, even if there are good reasons you point out that it might not totally be free for taxpayers in the end (but probably still cheaper, especially considering corruption has hidden real-money costs).  

How would citizens go about getting a law like that enacted?  Are there any other governments in the world (at any level--local, state, national, whatever) that have implemented something like this? (You know, someplace as a model or case study, that could be used to show people that it is possible and as an example of how it might be done?)
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