An Assembly budget subcommittee voted this week to approve several funding requests from California state agencies and departments for IT-related projects and initiatives. Here's a short summary of eight of these requests. The state's budget for fiscal year 2017-18 continues to be shaped. Gov. Jerry Brown is scheduled Thursday to release his May budget revision based on updated revenue projections.
1. Debt Management System DMS II
The State Treasurer's Office (STO) has requested $5.8 million in this year’s budget to continue development on Debt Management System II. The DMS II was first funded in 2013-14 as a replacement to the previous administration system for the state’s outstanding debt. The DMS II will be used to pay debt services and fees, and validate the issuing of new debt. The vendor will be paid $4 million of the requested funds while the rest will go toward staffing, verification, oversight and system licensing. The requested funds would come from state reimbursements.
2. Treasurer’s Office Information Security Program Augmentation
The STO also requested $330,000 from the state’s General Fund for one full-time, permanent information security employee and to maintain the system’s security tools and administration. The money will be put toward maintaining cyber-risk management and security defense, as well as finding and removing new threats.
3. Data and Government Transparency Unit
Also at the STO, via a $799,000 request, five positions would be continually funded to support data and government transparency initiatives. The money would fund three senior programmer analyst positions, one systems software specialist and one staff information systems analyst. The STO began its Data and Government Transparency Unit through the 2015-16 budget process. That year’s budget included $700,000 and five positions for the creation of the unit which has updated the STO’s website and created other pages such as DebtWatch.
4. California State Payroll System
The State Controller’s Office requested $2.9 million of one-year, limited-term funding for 11 positions for work on pre-planning activities for a new human resource management and payroll system. This comes after a failed payroll modernization begun in 2010. The General Fund would contribute $1.7 million, and $1.2 million would be from the Central Services Cost Recovery Fund.
5. SCO Information Security Workload
The SCO also requested $966,000 in 2017-18 and an additional $928,000 in 2018-19 for eight positions for work to keep the SCO compliant with security standards. The areas of risk assessment and continuous monitoring were found out of National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) guidelines, prompting the creation of a permanent information asset security analyst and an information asset custodian. The first two years of work will include costs from temporary and contract help with security concerns.
6. FI$Cal Budget Change Proposals via
The SCO also has submitted three proposed budget changes related to FI$Cal — the state's financial information system rollout. An estimated $1.5 million would come from the General Fund for 2017-18 to pay for 13 positions, while the state’s Accounting Book of Record is moved from the legacy system to the FI$Cal system. The money would go toward work that is already in progress for the 2017 release.
Another $1.2 million, partly from the General Fund and partly from the Central Services Cost Recovery Fund for 2017-18, has been requested for 12 positions. Also proposed: another $1.1 million for the 2018-19 year and $488,000 for the 2019-20 year to support five of those positions remaining permanent. The five positions would support Fi$Cal’s Vendor Management File.
The final FI$Cal budget change proposal is a request of three permanent positions and $343,000 to create and maintain an Electronic Claims Processing system. The new system will file documents for audits electronically, streamlining the claim process.
7. California Automated Travel Expense Reimbursement System
The California Automated Travel Expense Reimbursement System vendor and reimbursement system is being replaced. The SCO requested $1.3 million in 2018-19 and $642,000 in 2019-20 to support three positions in 2017-18 as the transition from the IBM-run CalATERS platform takes place. The system will no longer be supported after 2020.
8. Benefit System Modernization
The State’s Benefit System Modernization will require staff to build an integrated and sustainable system for California claimants. Approximately $4 million has been requested from the Special Fund to create 15 positions in 2017-18 for the project. About $1.8 million will be spent on a requirements vendor contract. The modernized system will serve the Employment Development Department as it fulfills unemployment, disability and paid family leave needs. The system is meant to modernize existing processes from the previous Common Business Oriented Language (COBOL) code while integrating three separate systems.
Correction: The FI$Cal proposals were brought forward by the SCO.
