Health Departments Lead States' IT Spending

By William Welsh, Staff Writer


JUNE 29 ? State health service agencies spent more money on information technology goods and services than any other state government agencies between 1998 and 2000, according to a report by the National Association of State Information Resource Technology Executives of Lexington, Ky.


The findings are in a June report released by NASIRE and titled: "2000 Report on State Information Technology Organizational Structures: Module One ? Budgets." They are based on a survey of state and agency IT budgets conducted by Federal Sources Inc. Twenty-seven states responded to the survey.


In addition to health agencies, the top 10 state agencies for IT expenditure (in order of frequency reported) includes transportation, human and social services, corrections, labor and employment, public safety, revenue, administration, environmental quality and protection and higher education.


The report also provides data on the state IT budget as a percentage of the total budget, and on IT expenditures by category (personnel, training, contracted services and software and hardware).


IT expenditures for fiscal 2000 averaged between 1 percent and 2 percent of the total state budget, although some states reported expenditures between 3 percent and 4 percent. The largest expenditures were in personnel and contracted services, while some of the smallest were made for software and training.


The association intends to publish three other modules over the next year on governance, policy and human resources.


NASIRE represents chief information officers, information resources managers and executives from the 50 states, six U.S. territories and the District of Columbia. The report may be ordered through the NASIRE Web site at www.nasire.org.