Low pay keeps state computers understaffed

Salaries aren't high enough to draw programmers and technicians to the Department of Information Technology, Director Marlene Lockard told a joint budget committee.

"It's a highly competitive field," she said. "We have a list of people who have retired from the state of Nevada and gone to the private sector at triple the state salary."

Similar jobs in local government pay as much as a quarter more than the state can offer, another reason for the department's 16 percent turnover rate, Lockard said.

As a result, the department has not been able to fill 15 vacant slots and has been contracting out work at an average monthly cost of $10,000 per programmer, double what a staff programmer costs, she said.

"Does anybody else on this committee see what I'm seeing? It really doesn't make any sense," said Sen. Bill O'Donnell, R-Las Vegas.

But the state's projected $140 million budget shortfall is holding up any salary increases, officials said.

Lockard had several ideas for improving recruitment and retention, and proposed a 10 percent across-the-board salary increase that would cost $4.7 million over two years, state Budget Director Perry Comeaux said.

"We just couldn't find (the money)," Comeaux said.

The director also wants to give new hires signing bonuses and wants merit bonuses for programmers working on difficult problems, such as the state's troubled welfare computer system.

Lockard also said she needs more money for training. The governor has recommended more than $600,000 in training funds for the next two years, about a 50 percent increase.

She also proposed using work-study programs with universities and opening an advanced-degree program to attract top students to state jobs.

Part of the department's $80 million, two-year budget includes a $6.5 million mainframe computer system to help process and store data from various state agencies.

But O'Donnell scolded the department for requesting more technology before using the resources it already has.

"What irritates me is that we can't keep our staff yet we can buy bigger boxes," O'Donnell said. He said he wanted to see the department invest in client-server systems rather than the older mainframes.

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