Joint Technology Committee approves R7 payments-to-OIT adjustment, asks JBC to review vendor pass-throughs

The Joint Technology Committee approved the Office of Information Technology’s payments-to-OIT adjustment (R7) on a motion that asked the Joint Budget Committee to review agency-specific vendor pass-throughs that may be absorbed into the IT revolving cash fund.

Representative Breanna Titone led questioning about the fund, saying, “there was $36,000,000 more than you needed in the account,” and asking when OIT first knew the excess and why it had not been returned in past supplementals. Ross Pasquale, OIT’s budget director, said the fund balance represents assets minus liabilities and includes non-cash items such as equipment, which can make the figure appear larger even if cash on hand is limited.

OIT staff explained that the R7 submission originally reflected a $10,800,000 year-over-year increase driven largely by agency-specific direct pass-through vendor costs (for example, licenses and vendor services), data-management staffing requests and statewide compensation adjustments. Pasquale also said JBC staff recommendations could reduce that figure closer to net zero by adjusting agency-specific IT lines.

After discussion, Representative Titone moved to approve R7 with a caveat that the JBC review whether pass-through vendor costs could be absorbed into the revolving fund; the committee polled and recorded the motion as carried (Weinberg absent). Chair Marchman said the committee would monitor the fund more frequently and request historical supplementals and balance sheets so members can graph changes since the fund’s inception.

The committee directed staff to return quarterly OIT updates that include step-5 true-ups and any associated accounting changes to improve oversight and transparency. No additional budget authority or amounts beyond the R7 submission were adopted by the committee at this meeting.

Next steps: staff will request historical supplementals and balance-sheet detail; the committee asked OIT to provide more regular reporting on the revolving fund and invited the Joint Budget Committee to examine the agency-specific direct pass-through line items.