Local Government IT Budgets
Even in a good environment, government IT budgets can feel constrained, but during a pandemic, the squeeze is felt much more acutely. The impact of the pandemic on local government revenue has been, and is expected to be, severe.
The National Association of Counties expects $114B in lost county revenue through the end of 2021’s fiscal year and the National League of Cities forecasts $360B of lost revenue over the next three years. These two organizations surveyed their members and found that in both cases, over 70% of their members were already making pandemic-related cuts. While for many areas, this has meant layoffs and furloughs, others are trying to hold steady and wait for the next fiscal year’s budget to prepare for cuts.
It’s been an opportunity for innovation, though, and given how many citizen interactions with the government have needed to move from the physical world to the digital space, IT has been at the forefront. Government Technology tells the story of Montgomery County, MD, which implemented a form and digital signature tool that didn’t require IT’s help for employees to create their own forms for citizens.
IT departments are going to be a difficult place to find cuts because of the increasingly vital role they play to government operations. IT has been particularly busy with getting their offices properly set up for telework, which can allow many government employees to continue with business as usual, despite restrictions on in-person attendance.
As innovative and useful as these departments might be, it all comes down to a matter of funding. The recent CARES Act did provide funding that reached the local level, but probably not in as substantive a manner as expected. The mayor of Dayton, Ohio mentioned on a recent call that about half of this funding might make it to cities eventually, but only eight percent has gotten there thus far.
Examples like this have caused the National Association of Counties and National League of Cities to call for an increase in local funding in the next relief package, have the funds sent directly, and allow more flexible with their use.
Extract sells software to hundreds of state and local governments across the United States, so we’re no stranger to seeing some of these difficult budget situations. Our goal is to be an innovative and productive part of these governments as well. We offer software that can automatically index your documents or find and redact any PII contained within them. This allows employees to focus on truly meaningful tasks instead of completing manual data work.
Implementing automated redaction can help enable citizen-friendly projects like online public records access, which has had increased importance during the pandemic. If you’re interested in learning more about how our solutions could benefit you, please reach out today.
