Agency of Digital Services asks Legislature to advance $15 million to shift IT billing model and standardize services

The Agency of Digital Services asked the Vermont House Appropriations Committee on Feb. 12 for a $15 million transfer in fiscal 2026 to begin phasing in a standardized enterprise billing model intended to reduce unpredictable interagency chargebacks and make core technology services uniform across state government.

The request is part of ADS's FY26 budget presentation to the committee. Denise Riley Hughes, secretary for the Agency of Digital Services and state chief information officer, said the agency’s FY26 base budget is “just under $138,000,000,” with roughly $133,000,000 attributed to the primary internal service fund that supports statewide communications and information technology. She and Kate Slocum, ADS chief financial officer, told members the $15 million would be a first-year subsidy to move core services out of time-and-materials demand billing and into a Core Enterprise Services model.

ADS said the transfer would “buy down” next year’s invoices so agencies are not hit with a sudden increase in charges for services consumed this year. “The $15,000,000 essentially buys down the SLA, which would be a future invoice for '27,” Slocum said, describing the transfer as a two-year phase-in that lets ADS normalize charges for baseline services such as network access, help desk support, identity accounts and baseline security.

In its presentation, ADS framed the request as a move from the current allocation-and-demand model toward a…