The HITS proposed 2024-25 budget of $103.3 million shows cybersecurity spending continues to rise along with enterprise applications. Cyber is expected to have $7.5 million, up from $5.8 million last year, and enterprise applications has $22.6 million, up from $20.2 million.
The overall city budget for 2024 was $6.2 billion, while this year’s proposal is $6.7 billion. Despite the increase, Houston faces a $200 million budget gap and is buffeted by remaining COVID-19 dollars, the Houston Chronicle reported this week.
“The Fiscal Year 2025 Proposed Budget is my first budget, and a large financial challenge is ahead. While we were able to close the budgetary gap using a combination of recurring expenditure reductions and a draw on fund balance, we know there is much more work to do ahead of us,” Mayor John Whitmire said in a city news release.
Houston’s budget year runs from July 1 to June 30 each year, and this budget will go to the City Council for a vote in June.
Projected spending can be seen at its Budget Bootcamp data visualization, which has multiple ways to filter the information. The heading “Budgeted Expenditures” shows general ledger descriptions including:
- $1.7 million in capital expenditures, communication equipment
- $9.9 million for communication equipment services
- $55.6 million for computing including maintenance, rental, software and supplies
- $15.7 million for data services
- $1.6 million for information resource services
- $16.8 million for voice equipment, labor and services including wireless
Supporting 24 departments and about 13,000 full-time city employees, HITS’ current budget is $99.6 million with about 212 full-time positions, according to the documentation. HITS is tasked with multiple programs such as city 311 services, cybersecurity, end-user computing, public safety tech, courts IT support and telecommunications support.
