Department of Technology and Innovation – BGA Policy 2027 Budget Snapshot

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: