Local government IT budgets continue to suffer, report says
More than half of local government information technology (IT) budgets will decrease over the next two years as a result of the continued economic slowdown, according to the Washington-based Public Technology Institute’s (PTI) “State of City and County IT 2010” national survey. IT department travel and education budgets continue to see the deepest cuts, according to the survey.
Fifty-five percent of the local government chief information officers (CIOs) and IT executives who responded to the survey said that their IT budgets would decrease over the next two years. Forty-one percent of respondents said that their overall budgets would remain the same over the next two years, and 9 percent said that their budgets would increase. Forty-eight percent of respondents said that travel and education funding would decrease over the next two years, while 34 percent said that their staff development and training budgets will decrease through 2012. In last year’s survey, 57 percent of respondents said that staff development and training will decrease over the next two years.
PTI and Reston, Va.-based INPUT, which cosponsored the survey, will hold a webinar on Oct. 21 at 2 p.m. to analyze the survey results. Download a summary of the survey findings and webinar registration information.