Pennsylvania's "e-government" ranking has slipped from ninth to 15th, Kelly Lewis said at the council's monthly meeting on Friday. Lewis became president and CEO of the council last December.
The state information technology budget has gone down as much as $400 million from its high-water mark during the Ridge/Schweiker administration, he said. "Our No. 1 goal is to grow the state IT [information technology] budget," Lewis said. "We want $100 million more in the state budget for IT projects."
During the Ridge/Schweiker administration, the state spent heavily to standardize and upgrade the desktop computers used by tens of thousands of state government workers, and to upgrade the state's telecommunications infrastructure. That spending accounted for some of the bigger budgets then.
Lewis said the technology council would like to see the Rendell administration "keep projects running through the pipeline."
Several companies that are members of the council are in the computer and software services industry. "We want to keep Pennsylvania a leader in government IT and e-government services," he said.
Efforts to reach state officials for comment on Friday were unsuccessful.
Lewis also noted that plans are being made for the council to run its own "angel" network, which would make grants to new companies in the very early stages of their development, and a venture capital network that would make grants to new companies that are more established.
"We don't want to just say hello," Lewis said. "We want to say hello, we have money to help you grow."
Autor: David DeKok
Quelle: The Patriot-News, 23.05.2005
