Republicans are opposing the creation of a new Department of Information Technology that Gov. Martin O’Malley wants to create to manage IT throughout state government.
“Why would they ever create a new [department] of the executive branch with four people in it?” asked House GOP Leader Anthony O’Donnell in floor debate Friday.
The new department will actually have more than 130 positions, but most of them are being transferred from the Office of Information Technology that is part of the Department of Budget and Management.
O’Malley’s transition team recommended the creation of the new department and making the chiefinformation officer a Cabinet-level position to give the department and its head greater clout in overseeing over 50 major IT projects.
“We’re operating with 1980-ish [technology] standards in some departments,” said Del. Dan Morhaim, whose government operations subcommittee approved the new department.
But making it a separate department would add 12 new positions that would cost close to $1 million. Because of the price tag, the House Appropriations Committee also reviewed the new department over the last week.
Appropriations Chairman Norman Conway said the budget secretary “assured me that they were reducing the number of positions,” with a new cost of $250,000.
O’Donnell was still unhappy about the new bureaucracy. “I’m not sure we can fix the bill at this point,” he said. He would argue against the new department on the final vote.
After the discussion, the House gave tentative approval to the new department.
