Hints of a Tech Gold Mine in the Stimulus Package

The headline technology winners in the government's economic stimulus package have been electronic health records and smart grids, where computing is front and center. Many billions have been pledged to these obviously high-tech fields. Yet a far larger flow of money into information technology may eventually come from state and local governments as part of a vast array of stimulus-package investment projects, according to Joaquin Gonzalez, director of research for CivicUS, which advises state and local governments. Gonzalez estimates that between $250 billion and $300 billion of the stimulus funding is targeted for state and local government projects intended to modernize and improve the efficiency of public services. This is not money, he says, to plug budget gaps, but for investments designed to make local government work smarter. In doing so, Gonzalez calculates, as much as one-third of that total will be spent on information technology projects, often involving the Web, to streamline and improve the delivery of public services and information to citizens.