Oregon official outlines IT funding, governance options as Vermont considers modernization fund

Sean McSpadden, principal legislative IT analyst with the Oregon Legislative Fiscal Office, told the House Energy and Digital Infrastructure Committee on April 2 that Oregon’s decentralized approach demonstrates both the difficulty of tracking IT spending and some practical tools for oversight and modernization funding.

McSpadden said Oregon estimates about 2,344 classified IT positions across roughly 50 agencies, of which only 254 positions are under direct supervision of the state chief information officer. He said the state spends about $2.3 billion on IT per biennium (roughly 1.8% of all‑funds biannual budget), and that “we estimate about 75 to 80% of that spend is focused in on legacy systems, operations, and maintenance.” He described recurring challenges states face in seeding and sustaining targeted modernization funds and said Oregon uses a set of governance and budget tools—price‑list chargebacks, policy option…