Deficit, Schmificit -- Look for More IT Spending

Government management scholar Paul Light is bullish on information technology. Speaking to an audience attending the Executive Leadership Conference in Williamsburg, a gathering of federal IT contractors and government technology executives, Light expects the federal government’s procurement budget to increase 5 percent to 10 percent in fiscal 2009. That would be a hefty increase even in a year when the government is flush with money, but the federal deficit is projected to hit a record and that’s even before the fiscal bailout funds are included.

Light said that neither a hatchet (as Sen. John McCain said he would use to cut the federal budget if elected) nor a scalpel (what Sen. Barack Obama said he would use on the federal budget to cut spending if elected) would be taken to IT spending. He said government reform will call for greater productivity and efficiency, “and they will look to you for answers,” he told the IT execs in the audience.