House Appropriations hears plan to use $15 million to change ADS billing method

The House Appropriations Committee on March 13 reviewed a plan to transfer $15,000,000 to the Agency of Digital Services’ Communications and Information Technology Fund to change how the agency bills state departments for certain IT services.

"The $15,000,000 transfer that we're here discussing today...will be a 1 time 15,000,000 transfer, to the Communications and Information Technology Fund to help the, to facilitate the, a change in billing practices at the Agency of Digital Services," James Duffy, officio analyst with the Joint Fiscal Office, told the committee.

The measure is a one‑time transfer in the governor's fiscal year 2026 recommendation. Joint Fiscal Office staff said the money would be used to shift roughly $15 million of costs now billed on a demand, in‑arrears basis into the communications and information technology (CIT) fund’s core enterprise services (CES) allocation so those costs are paid in the same year the services are used.

The move, officials said, is intended to reduce accounting complications and chronic deficits that arise when departments are billed a year after services are delivered. "Billing in arrears really…