State Agencies are going to find it tough to come up with more $$ for GIS. They were told consistently that funding for GIS would be covered under the General fund budget request and feedback for this was good right up until the last days of the budget negotiations.
Consequently Agencies did not budget for GIS. They were also told to reduce Information Technology expenses so this puts them in a double bind, any money diverted to support GIS now will take funding from other priority areas already identified in the budget passed at the beginning of the month.
Joseph Young
Maine Office of GIS, Administrative Director
Maine Library of Geographic Information, Executive Director
SHS 145
51 Commerce Drive<[log in to unmask],-69.802412,822m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x4cb206d051eb934d:0x1075539d44caa8f0!6m1!1e1C:/Users/joseph.young.SOM/Documents/ArcGIS" target="_blank">https:[log in to unmask],-69.802412,822m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x4cb206d051eb934d:0x1075539d44caa8f0!6m1!1e1C:/Users/joseph.young.SOM/Documents/ArcGIS>
Augusta, Maine 04333-0145
Voice: 207-624-9539
Cell: 207-624-2664
https://www1.maine.gov/megis/
https://www1.maine.gov/geolib/
From: Maine GeoNews [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jon Giles
Sent: Friday, July 28, 2017 12:27 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Developing Issue - the Defunding of MEGIS (Maine Office of GIS)
As many of you are now aware, the MEGIS budget appears to have been zeroed out during the recent budget negotiations. It appears that MEGIS was to be funded through a proposal to create a Department of Technical Services (DTS) with a corresponding general fund request to fund said DTS department. However, when the Department of Technical Services creation failed to happen, OIT was asked to reconstitute a budget under its current role within the Department of Administrative and Financial Services (DAFS). In doing this it would appear that the budget for MEGIS was zeroed out at this point. I'm not sure why and don't have an answer for this yet. I hope by engaging with the legislative joint standing committees we report to we may get more information and can begin to discuss how this can be reversed.
MEGIS and the Maine Library of Geographic Information (GeoLibrary) were both create by statute. MEGIS' primary role is to enable state agencies with GIS and in the course of doing so to provide:
* Maintenance of a public geospatial data portal
* Coordination of state efforts with federal and local efforts
* Development and maintenance of geospatial architecture to state agencies and public-facing web services
* Maintenance of base data
* Development of web-mapping applications for state agencies
The GeoLibrary works with MEGIS to accomplish this and what the GeoLibrary was established to do in partnership with public and private stakeholders. The GeoLibrary activities extend beyond State government to working with other public and private groups and local Maine government to extend and promote geospatial efforts statewide to the public. The GeoLibrary cannot do its work without MEGIS.
What does this mean? Simply that many of the GIS services, data acquisition projects, and data catalog resources we have all come to use and rely upon may not be there in the very near future. I urge you to contact your friends and peers to let them know about this unexpected and dire situation. I also ask those of you who feel comfortable and can reach out to your elected officials, to let them know what is happening and what it means to you. Inform them by email, letter, phone call, or even a quick conversation around town when you see them, that MEGIS needs to be funded if we are going to continue to make gains in Maine using geospatial data to everyone's benefit.
Jon Giles, PLS, GISP
Chair, Maine Library of Geographic Information
GIS Coordinator, Sebago Technics, Inc.
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