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Controller urges Legislature to fund LUMA positions as implementation moves on‑budget
Summary
State Controller Brandon Wolf asked lawmakers to fund LUMA staff as a dedicated Business Information Infrastructure Fund expires; he warned cutting funding would halve the LUMA team and slow financial processing and audits.
State Controller Brandon Wolf told the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee the state's enterprise system, LUMA, is operational and the office seeks funding to continue sustainment work after the Business Information Infrastructure Fund (BIF) sunsets June 30.
"We have 47 employees working on the LUMA project," Wolf said. "The 13 that we asked for, we've already received the okay for the positions in fiscal year '22 and '23. We did not receive the funding for those. . . . If we did not have the funding, then we would almost cut the LUMA team in half." The controller asked the committee to approve an appropriation package to bring LUMA sustainment onto the office's budget and to add staff the controller's office described as necessary for continued operations.
Analyst Frances Lippett explained most of the office's $15.2 million fiscal 2026 request is to move continuous‑appropriation LUMA costs onto the appropriation line as the BIF expires. The package included funding for seven additional FTE (bringing 20 positions total into the appropriation), $800,000 for LUMA infrastructure in the computer service center, two financial specialists to provide shared services to smaller agencies, and a communications manager for government transparency programs. The governor recommended the requested enhancements.
Committee members pressed the controller on operational impacts and audit timing. Wolf acknowledged the office was late in completing year‑end close and said the first reports were roughly eight weeks behind schedule during the transition; the office is working with agency partners and auditors to catch up. He emphasized change management and user training as critical elements of long‑term success and said other states that started similar enterprise implementations fared worse: "Several don't even get to the point. There was 3 or 4 states that started the same time that we did and still have not gone live."
Why it matters: LUMA centralizes HR, payroll, procurement and financial systems. Funding choices affect whether the state can retain staff who maintain the system, process payroll and pay vendors on time, and meet federal audit deadlines.
Next steps: Committee members asked for explanations of technical items (for example, a legacy "10P" payroll tie mechanism) and sought further detail on how the requested positions would reduce agency‑level pressure. The controller offered to share lessons learned and implementation best practices with the committee and other agencies.
