Department of Technology and Innovation – BGA Policy 2027 Budget Snapshot

The city’s IT department has undergone various organizational shifts over the years, merging with the fleet and facilities management department in 2020 to form the combined Department of Assets, Information and Services and then separating back out into DOTI in 2024. 

• The 2027 proposal slashes DOTI’s budget dramatically, reducing appropriations by -54.9%.
  
• DOTI’s substantial budget reduction is primarily achieved by the elimination or near-elimination of multiple appropriations, including software maintenance and licensing, professional and technical services, repair and maintenance of equipment, mobile communications services, and Centrex telephone billings.
  
• Despite the deep budget cuts and the department having the highest staffing vacancy rates in both 2025 and 2026, the 2027 proposal makes no changes in budgeted headcount. 

The standalone IT department that existed from 2012-2019 (DOIT) was expanded from a much smaller department in Rahm Emanuel’s first budget. During the Lightfoot administration, DOIT was merged with the Department of Fleet and Facilities Management (2FM) to create a new Department of Assets, Information and Services (AIS). Mayor Johnson undid the merger, creating a standalone information department, now renamed the Department of Technology and Information (DOTI). 

From 2012-2019, following its reorganization under Emanuel but before the merger with FFM, the DOIT budget declined at an average rate of -2.3% annually, compared to a citywide average budget growth rate of 4.1% annually.

Since 2024, when the AIS merger was undone and DOTI returned as a standalone department, departmental appropriations have declined at an average rate of -2.2%, compared to a citywide average budget growth rate of 0.9% annually. The current proposal would slash the department’s budget dramatically, reducing DOTI appropriations by -54.9% from the previous year. 

Estimated Fringe Costs

City budgets do not break out “fringe” pension and benefit costs for non-grant positions by department, instead grouping them together as citywide expenses under the Finance General section of the budget. To better reflect the real cost of service for departmental operations, BGA Policy has included an estimate of pension and benefit costs for the years 2018-2026, using Department of Finance fringe memos from each relevant year. An estimated fringe cost for the 2027 proposal uses the average annual rate of increase for each of the inputs into the fringe formulae. 

Based on the city’s fringe formulae, the DOTI fringe cost for nongrant employees averaged 11.9% across its years as a standalone department since 2018 (2018-2019 and 2024-2026), compared to a citywide average of 26.8%. 

Local Fund Actual Spend

Over the past two complete budget years for which local fund actuals/encumbrances data is available and DOTI existed as a standalone department, the IT department spent on average 84.1% of its locally funded budget, compared to the citywide average 86.6% local fund spend.

Budgeted Positions & Vacancies

Staffing levels at DOTI declined sharply following its first post-merger budget, and have remained relatively stable since, with 145 positions/FTEs budgeted in 2025 and 144 in both 2026 and the 2027 proposal. 

From January through September of 2026, the months for which full-time position vacancy data is currently available, DOTI averaged a 32.7% vacancy rate, the highest in the city other than the Department of Environment, which spent much of the year filling a dramatic increase in budgeted positions. The citywide average vacancy rate from Jan-Sept 2026 was 11.2%. 

33 of the department’s budgeted full-time positions were persistent vacancies (defined as the number of positions within the same combination of title, subsection, section, division, department, and fund codes that remained vacant in all nine months of available data), for a persistent vacancy rate of 22.9%, the highest of any department: 

Apart from title/code changes, the 2027 budget makes no changes in DOTI’s budgeted workforce. 

DOTI is 70% locally-funded in this year’s budget proposal, down from the previous year’s 84.1%. Both grant and local fund appropriations are down. 

All of DOTI’s locally funded appropriations this year come from the corporate fund, with prior year appropriations from the city’s other local funds eliminated in the 2027 proposal. 

Largest Appropriations

As with most departments, personnel costs make up the bulk of DOTI’s appropriations, with salaries and wages on payroll the largest expense category. 

In 2025, the most recent complete budget year for which local fund actuals and encumbrances data is available, DOTI spent 84.3% of its locally-funded budget. 

Change from Previous Year

DOTI’s appropriations reductions come primarily from technology service and infrastructure reductions, with a -$16.8 million reduction almost entirely eliminating the software maintenance and licensing category (down -99.3% from 2026). A number of other appropriations were eliminated entirely, reducing the department’s budget by a net -$19.9 million.