Laredo Proposed Budget Includes $8.9M for IT Department

The city of Laredo has requested a $8.9 million budget for its Information Services and Telecommunications (IST) Department in its annual budget for fiscal year 2024-2025.

Here is a breakdown of the department’s planned expenditures:

• $1.3 million for administration
• $987,000 for telecommunications
• $711,000 for radio communications
• $1.1 million for mainframe
• $1.9 million for network
• $1.3 million for I-Net software
• $421,000 for Wi-Fi
• $381,000 for the City Hall Annex
• $278,000 for open data
• $457,000 for cybersecurity

Additionally, the IST Department has made $4.3 million worth of capital requests:

• $1.3 million for an access control system
• $1.2 million for upgraded network switches
• $610,000 for an uninterruptable power supply upgrade
• $502,000 for upgraded video surveillance servers
• $250,000 for a network core switch upgrade in its telecom building
• $150,000 for an Internet traffic load balancer

The city has also approved $580,000 worth of IT capital requests for its police department, including:

• $282,000 for data network switches
• $82,000 for data center servers
• $64,000 for video network switches
• $49,000 for a cybersecurity firewall
• $35,000 for network equipment racks

Additional capital requests include $100,000 to the fire department for an alerting system, $65,000 to the Laredo Municipal Court for an access control system upgrade and $6,000 to the health department for SAS software.