Office for Technology
The enacted budget makes the following changes to the Executive budget (analysis as of March 29, 2006):
- Reduces the Internal Service Fund appropriation for the operation of the consolidated State data center by $3 million which reflects the legislature’s rejection of new initiatives: including storage capability enhancements and e-mail back up.
- Eliminates a $75 million capital appropriation for the construction of a new consolidated data center.
The Senate and Assembly made the following changes to the Executive Budget (analysis as of March 20, 2006):
Senate:
- Reduced the Executive’s proposed appropriation for the Internal Service Fund Program’s State Data Center by $6 million. The Report of the Senate Finance Committee describes this reduction as the rejection of the new initiatives including disaster recovery, storage capability enhancements and e-mail back up.
- Reduced the Executive’s proposed appropriation for personal service by $300,000 and non-personal service by $4.5 million. The Report of the Senate Finance Committee describes the Senate as rejecting the development of a standard for accessing State-run databases and the five new FTE positions associated with this new initiative; and rejecting contracting with a consultant to perform a study based on server consolidation and the three new FTEs attached to the study.
Assembly:
- Reduced the Office for Technology Program by $1.5 million in savings to be apportioned throughout the agency.
- Reduced the $75 million appropriation for a new single consolidated data center to $1 million which would be reprogrammed for a study for a single consolidated data center. This change would need to be in appropriation language resubmitted by the Governor.
The Executive Budget recommends (analysis as of January 24, 2006)
• An FTE level of 729, an increase of 8 General Fund supported FTEs from the adjusted SFY2005-06 FTE level. The OFT workforce on 3/31/06 will be 65 FTE’s greater than estimated in the SFY2005-06 Executive Budget. Workforce changes that occurred during SFY2005-06 include: 22 more FTEs supported by the General Fund, and 43 more FTEs supported by Internal Service Funds. According to the Assembly Ways and Means analysis five of the new FTE positions will be assigned to an Identity and Access Management project and three will be assigned to a server Consolidation project. Consultants will also be assigned to these projects. An explanation of where the additional SFY2005-06 positions have been added and what type of positions they are should be sought at statewide labor-management.
• An All-Funds appropriation of $279.595 million, an $8.62 million, or 3.2% increase over last year’s appropriation. This increase does not include the new $75 million capital projects appropriation for the proposed new consolidated data center.
• Amends Civil Service Law to permit temporary appointments for up to 60 months, without examination, for individuals rendering professional, scientific, technical or other expert services on a full-time or a regular part-time basis in information technology positions. Currently, temporary appointments are limited to 18 months. Current and the proposed 5-year temporary appointees do not have explicit just cause discipline rights, do not have to be placed in competitive class positions, and can be paid as NS employees which means they can receive any salary the Division of Budget sees fit to pay. This raises the possibility that the 5-year temporary employees can receive a greater salary than employees in serving in similar permanent positions. In addition, employees employed in these 5-year temporary positions will automatically be enrolled in a new defined contribution retirement program and are ineligible for membership in the State’s other public retirement systems. DOB claims that this new authority is necessary to give the State the flexibility to use State employees rather than consultants for information technology projects that are scheduled to last for five years or less.
• A new $75 million consolidated data center which will be financed by authority bonds, and is justified as follows: “(It) will permit the safe and secure operation of the State’s mainframe computers and servers at a single, efficient primary site. The data center will be designed to permit the consolidation of the growing number of servers operated by OFT and individual agencies. By pooling these resources, staff and hardware can be used far more efficiently to provide better, more dependable service to agencies and the customers they serve. No further information is provided about the consolidated data center. Its location is not specified in OFT’s budget and while it has been reported that it will be located in Albany, perhaps at the Harriman State Campus, there is no guarantee that it will be located in the Capital District. It is important to note that the $75 million appropriation is relatively small and would indicate that OFT is planning on rehabilitating a currently constructed building than constructing a new building or acquiring a new site. Statewide labor management should attempt to get OFT management to indicate where they are planning to locate the consolidated data center.
• A$1,024,000 increase in OFT’s General Fund non-personal service appropriation. $774,000 of this increase is for contractual services and $245,000 is for equipment. A justification for this increase should be sought at statewide labor management. According to the Assembly Ways and Means analysis most of this increase is for the Identity and Access management and Server consolidation projects discussed above.
• A $7.5 million increase in the Internal Service Fund appropriation, $6 million of which is for the State data center and $1.5 million of which is for the Human Services Telecommunications account. According to the Assembly Ways and Means analysis these additional funds are for new initiatives related to disaster recovery, storage capability, e-mail backup, and security.
Program Details-State Operations
Enacted
Proposed
Enacted
Change in
Percent
Program
2005-06 Budget
2006-07 Budget
2006-07 Budget
Appropriation
Change
All Funds
$270,953,000
$279,595,000
$276,595,000
$5,642,000
2.1%
General Fund
$21,953,000
$23,095,000
$23,095,000
$1,142,000
5.2%
Internal Service Fund
$249,000,000
$256,500,000
$253,500,000
$4,500,000
1.8%
Office for Technology
$270,953,000
$279,595,000
$276,595,000
$5,642,000
2.1%
Personal Service
$7,868,000
$7,986,000
$7,986,000
$118,000
1.5%
Nonpersonal Service
$14,085,000
$15,109,000
$15,109,000
$1,024,000
7.3%
Internal Service Fund
$249,000,000
$256,500,000
$253,500,000
$4,500,000
1.8%
New York intranet (NYT)
$105,000,000
$105,000,000
$105,000,000
$0
0.0%
State Data Center
$109,000,000
$115,000,000
$112,000,000
$3,000,000
2.8%
Human Services Telecommunications Account
$35,000,000
$36,500,000
$36,500,000
$1,500,000
4.3%