$456 million in cost overruns for New Mexico’s IT projects

After 20 years at the Rio Grande Foundation there isn’t much in New Mexico government that surprises me, but this Albuquerque Journal story in which we learn that “the state’s four currently largest information technology projects have exceeded their initial budget estimates by roughly $456 million according to a new legislative report.

One might mistakenly believe that the entire cost of these IT systems would be roughly $456 million (nearly half a billion dollars), but no, that’s just the cost overruns.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, one of the most problematic projects has been at CYFD. According to the article:

A new Children, Youth and Families Department case management system, was undertaken in 2017 in response to a federal rule change with an initial completion target of October 2022. But the project has been repeatedly delayed and is now not scheduled to be fully completed until October 2027, the Legislative Finance Committee report found.

It’s as if the State told Albuquerque City Councilor Brook Bassan (she of the massively overbudget swimming pool) “hold my beer.”