Tax, Human Resources IT Projects Funded in New State Budget

Key technology projects should proceed this fiscal year at two state entities within the umbrella California Government Operations Agency, following the recent approval of their state budgets.

The California Department of Human Resources (CalHR) saw its approved overall budget rise by about 8 percent, from $156.4 million in the 2022-23 fiscal year to $169 million in FY 2023-24. (All numbers in this article are rounded.) IT work at the department, which opened a recruitment earlier this month for a chief technology officer, includes two projects funded by budget change proposals:

• CalHR received $2.9 million and nine positions in this year’s budget for the California State Payroll System (CSPS) initiative. That’s exactly what it had sought in a budget change proposal (BCP) submitted with its partner on the project, the California State Controller’s Office. The funding will enable CSPS to move from planning to implementation, once it completes as anticipated Stage 4 of the California Department of Technology’s (CDT) Project Approval Lifecycle (PAL) process during FY 2023-24 and gains CDT-approved project status. CalHR joined the project, which originated with SCO in 2016, in 2020. CSPS, generally, will be a new human resources management and payroll system and ultimately will see the state move from monthly to biweekly payroll.
• CalHR received $172,000 for a privacy officer to develop and manage its policies, procedures and compliance with state privacy laws and standards. CalHR’s information security office, according to the BCP, has one dedicated security officer position that has also been doing the duties of a privacy officer. The funding will enable the security officer to focus exclusively on his or her duties, by filling the privacy officer position. In accordance with State Administrative Manual (SAM) standards, the BCP notes, heads of state entities must lead the establishment of a privacy program and prioritize the privacy and security of people’s personal information.
  

The California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA) saw its approved overall budget rise by nearly 3 percent, from $711 million in FY 2022-23 to $731.4 million in FY 2023-24. An ongoing IT project is among the initiatives that were funded:

• CDTFA received $4.8 million to continue work on the Centralized Revenue Opportunity System (CROS), an IT modernization that has already enabled the department to expand its services to tax and fee payers, to improve its efficiency and effectiveness and its ability to generate more revenue. That’s not exactly what CDTFA had sought. In a BCP, it had sought $8.9 million in FY 2023-24 and FY 2024-25, including $5.3 million across those two fiscal years for maintenance and operations contracts; $2.75 million in the same two fiscal years for the GenTax software license fee; and $850,000 in the same period for hardware, software and training to support CROS. The project’s three rollouts spanned 2018, 2019 and 2020. The funding will help keep CROS current and at optimal operating capabilities, the BCP says.