New York enacted its budget for 2009 just 8 days after the fiscal year began, a remarkable achievement after the extraordinary resignation of Eliot Spitzer. State spending will increase 5% over 2008 and 2,000 new state employees will be added during the next fiscal year.

The $122 billion budget should make almost every constituency happy, including technology vendors. Completely ignored was the looming deficit. Governor Paterson, in a speech at a recent Association for a Better New York (ABNY) meeting, vowed to do better next year.

Only three technology projects mentioned in former governor Spitzer's recommended budget were not funded. Sadly, in light of the secretive nature of the recent budget negotiations, one of those projects appears to be the expansion of Project Sunlight, which was created in 2007 and combines several state databases into a single web site. But, back to the good news; here are a few of the projects that got funded:

• Enterprise Technology Solutions -- $129.2 million may be allocated to other state agencies to achieve the implementation of enterprise technology applications, but only if the agencies agrees to use the new statewide financial management system.
  
  
• Consolidated Data Center -- $99.1 million for services and expenses related to the construction, lease or purchase of a consolidated data center facility.
  
  
• Medicaid Management Information System (MMIS) -- $95.7 million for the operation of the current MMIS system and the development and operation of a replacement system. The current fiscal agent contract is held by CSC.
  
  
• Statewide Automated Fingerprint Identification System (SAFIS) Replacement -- $24 million for fingerprint identification technologies that advance the detection and prevention of crime.
  
  
• Health Information Technology Program -- $3 million for health information technology, which will include the Interoperable Health Information Exchange project.

For more information on all of the technology projects mentioned in the 2009 budget, INPUT members may refer to the New York State Government Profile.