Local government IT budgets continue shrinking

Fifty-five percent of local government information technology (IT) budgets will decrease over the next two years as a result of the economic slowdown, according to the results of a national survey conducted by the Washington-based Public Technology Institute (PTI) and Reston, Va.-based INPUT, which cosponsored the survey. Travel and education budgets have been particularly hard hit, and respondents to "The State of City and County IT 2009" said they expect that trend to continue into 2011.

The survey, which is in its second year and targets local government chief information officers (CIO) and IT department directors, found that 71 percent of respondents said IT department travel and education budgets will decrease over the next two years. Fifty-seven percent of respondents said that their IT staff development and training budgets will decrease through 2011, while 41 percent said that those budget items will remain the same as in this year's budget.

Read the entire story from American City & County, our sister publication.