Reject bill rolling back years of IT progress

Senate File (SF) 3656, the omnibus supplemental finance and policy bill, will decentralize and outsource services provided by MNIT. The bill threatens to roll back years of IT progress to provide efficient and cost-effective IT services to state agencies and the public they serve.

MAPE's MNIT professionals are asked to email members of the legislative conference committee below. We're providing a letter, both on this page and as an MS Word document to cut and paste into each legislator's email address or their email form.

Here are the conference committee recipients to email this letter to via the email address or the link to an email form box provided:

• Sen. Julie Rosen

• Sen. Michelle Benson

• Sen. Scott Newman

• Sen. Warren Limmer

• Sen. Mary Kiffmeyer

• Rep. Jim Knoblach

• Rep. Pat Garofalo

• Rep. Jenifer Loon

• Rep. Gene Pelowski

• Rep. Paul Torkelson

The text of the letter is below:

Dear

I am an IT Specialist for Department of MNIT Services, and I am writing to strongly urge you to reject any proposals in S.F. 3656, the Omnibus Supplemental Finance and Policy bill, to decentralize or outsource services currently provided by the MNIT Services. These proposals would roll back years of progress made by state IT professionals to provide efficient and cost-effective services to our state agencies and the public they serve.

Many of us took a large pay cut coming from the private sector to work for the state. We accepted the pay cut because, like you, we believe public service provides a certain value to our communities that is more rewarding. Private sector pay and benefit packages just can’t do that. We ensure that the decades-old IT systems are able to continue functioning on equipment that is older than many of our colleagues coming into the workforce. We are also on the front lines in protecting data collected by the state from constant cyberattacks.

Decentralizing and outsourcing this work would impede our ability to do our jobs effectively and would drive up the service costs astronomically. The state would go back to paying multiple contracts with the same vendor to provide duplicative services. This patchwork system would require more IT staff to manage the increased set of systems and, in some cases, create a need for new applications just to continue to provide the current base-level services to Minnesotans. Current IT project timelines would be impacted as well if agencies and IT professionals have to navigate additional or different outside vendor agreements, rather than a centralized service provider.

I want to continue to work for the state and use my skill set to improve the lives of Minnesotans. IT is already a tough and demanding profession; decentralizing and outsourcing my work would provide more barriers to the great services provided and make state service a less attractive option for current and potential employees. Please reject any proposals that undo the great work MNIT Services has done over the past 7 years.

Sincerely,