Joint Fiscal Office outlines how Vermont pays for IT modernization and routine services

James Steffey, senior analyst at the Joint Fiscal Office, told the House Appropriations Committee on April 9 that Vermont separates IT spending into routine operating costs and one‑time modernization projects and uses different funding approaches for each.

Steffey said operating costs — for items such as email, internet connectivity and baseline cybersecurity services — are typically “folded into existing state budgeting practices fairly well” and are often covered through Agency of Digital Services (ADS) billing to agencies via an internal service fund known as the Communications and Information Technology (CIT) fund. He explained that the CIT fund allocates core enterprise costs on a per‑head basis and bills demand‑driven services (for example, ADS staff hours or extra Microsoft licenses) through a separate “demand” category that can be used to recover costs for bespoke projects.

The Joint Fiscal Office presentation distinguished those annual operating expenses from major IT modernization efforts — large, discrete projects to replace legacy…