Executive Summary
Connecticut budgets on a two-year cycle; the FY2026–27 biennial budget signed in June 2025 totals roughly $55.8B (~$27.1B in FY2026, ~$28.4B in FY2027), and a FY2027 adjustment (Public Act 26-68) was signed in late May 2026. For a Dell seller, three things shape the motion. First, technology is centralized: State CIO Mark Raymond runs IT for ~39 executive-branch agencies through the Department of Administrative Services' (DAS, led by Commissioner Michelle Gilman) Bureau of Enterprise Systems & Technology (BEST), and IT buys above $500K route through BEST. Second, the policy posture is restraint paired with governance, not acceleration — after Gov. Lamont's veto threat killed the broad SB 2 AI bill in 2025, the General Assembly passed a reworked omnibus AI bill, SB 5 (the Connecticut Artificial Intelligence Responsibility and Transparency Act, or 'CART Act'), which Lamont signed June 2, 2026 as Public Act 26-15. He is also publicly telling new data centers to 'slow down' unless they bring their own power generation, because Connecticut's electric rates rank among the nation's highest. Third, the real demand is unglamorous but durable: IT consolidation and shared services, a 'whole-of-state' cybersecurity push funded partly by federal grants, governed AI pilots inside agencies, and the K-12/library/municipal network (Connecticut Education Network) plus the UConn/Yale research base. Sell governed modernization and lifecycle value, not speculative AI-factory scale.
- IT consolidation and shared services under BEST — server, storage, and infrastructure refresh as the state standardizes across ~39 agencies.
- 'Whole-of-state' cybersecurity for state agencies and municipalities, backed by federal State & Local Cybersecurity Grant funding and 24/7 monitoring already in place.
- Governed, on-prem / private-cloud AI pilots inside agencies and the Commission for Educational Technology — a fit given the state's caution about open public models.
- Higher-ed and research computing at UConn and Yale, plus the Connecticut Education Network serving K-12, libraries, and most municipalities.
Dell Action Plan
- Lead with consolidation and shared services: tie Dell infrastructure, storage, and lifecycle offerings to BEST's standardization across ~39 agencies, and frame value as avoided cost under the spending cap.
- Engage BEST early on any IT pursuit above $500K — that threshold triggers central review, so align stakeholders and statewide-contract coverage before the deal matures.
- Position 'whole-of-state' security: secure infrastructure, endpoint, and managed services that extend from state agencies to municipalities, mapped to federal cybersecurity grant cycles.
- Sell governed, private/on-prem AI for sensitive workloads — a fit for a state that enacted only narrow AI regulation (2026) and stays cautious about open public models and hyperscale data centers.
- Cultivate UConn and Yale as research-computing and AI-infrastructure accounts, and leverage the existing DAS–UConn purchasing partnership and the Connecticut Education Network footprint.
Budget & Fiscal
Connecticut appropriates on a two-year (biennial) cycle. The FY2026–27 budget signed in June 2025 totals roughly $55.8B — about $27.1B in FY2026 and $28.4B in FY2027 — and stays under the state's spending cap. There is no single published 'state IT budget' line; technology spend is distributed across agencies and centrally coordinated by DAS/BEST, with a FY2027 mid-biennium adjustment (Public Act 26-68, ~$28.6B all funds) signed in late May 2026 — bipartisan, no tax increase, boosting town/education aid and using surplus to pay down debt.
- Budget figures are biennial; technology spend is not a single line item — it is distributed across agencies and coordinated centrally by DAS/BEST.
- Connecticut operates under a statutory spending cap; the posture is cost-conscious, so frame value as consolidation, lifecycle, and avoided cost rather than net-new spend.
- FY2027 (governor's proposed adjustment, per NASBO): $25.5B general fund, +0.4% vs enacted FY2027 (+4.5% vs FY2026); $28.7B all funds. A mid-biennium adjustment that holds a $5.8B budget reserve and stays under the spending cap.
All appropriated funds, gross appropriations (OFA enacted budget books, legislative FY columns of subcommittee summary tables) Statewide: $51.45B → $56.03B (+8.9%). Top 12 movers of 64 agencies.
| Agency | Prior | Current | Δ $ | Δ % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Department of Social Services | $9.07B | $10.57B | +$1.5B | +16.5% |
| Department of Education | $6.54B | $7.12B | +$580.1M | +8.9% |
| Teachers' Retirement Board | $3.17B | $3.61B | +$437.5M | +13.8% |
| State Comptroller - Fringe Benefits | $7.23B | $7.57B | +$343.9M | +4.8% |
| Department of Developmental Services | $3B | $3.19B | +$191.4M | +6.4% |
| Office of Early Childhood | $698.1M | $860.5M | +$162.5M | +23.3% |
| Reserve for Salary Adjustments | $75.6M | $235.4M | +$159.8M | +211.2% |
| Office of Policy and Management | $1.42B | $1.55B | +$129.9M | +9.2% |
| Department of Transportation | $1.87B | $1.99B | +$128.2M | +6.9% |
| Department of Correction | $1.4B | $1.53B | +$124.2M | +8.9% |
| Connecticut State Colleges and Universities | $863.5M | $981.2M | +$117.7M | +13.6% |
| Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services | $1.48B | $1.58B | +$98.1M | +6.6% |
- Gross appropriations summed across all appropriated funds (General Fund, Special Transportation Fund, and 11 smaller funds) from OFA subcommittee summary tables. Parsed totals reconcile exactly to the books' fund-summary appendices: FY24 $25.265B, FY25 $26.189B, FY26 $27.287B, FY27 $28.741B. Unallocated lapses/holdbacks (about -$0.15B/yr) are budgeted separately and excluded.
- The FY 26-27 book predates the May 2026 FY 2027 revisions (PA 26-68); figures are the original biennium enactment.
- Connecticut budgets employee fringe benefits centrally under 'State Comptroller - Fringe Benefits' and debt service under 'Debt Service - State Treasurer'; operating-agency lines therefore understate all-in agency cost.
- Structural changes between biennia: Council on Environmental Quality is newly itemized in FY 26-27 (previously within DEEP); Office of Workforce Strategy appears only in FY 24-25.
Source: CT OFA, Connecticut State Budget FY 26 - FY 27 (Aug 2025) · CT OFA, Connecticut State Budget FY 24 - FY 25 (Oct 2023)
Initiatives & Policy
IT Consolidation & Shared Services (DAS/BEST)5
OngoingState CIO Mark Raymond is centralizing technology for roughly 39 executive-branch agencies under DAS and the Bureau of Enterprise Systems & Technology (BEST), emphasizing shared solutions across agencies and leveraging combined purchasing power. This is the most reliable, funded motion in the state — infrastructure refresh, storage, and managed services that map to standardization rather than agency-by-agency sprawl.
Whole-of-State Cybersecurity7
ActiveConnecticut is pursuing federal grants (State & Local Cybersecurity Grant Program) to extend a 'whole-of-state' strategy to municipalities, with 24/7 security monitoring and advanced endpoint protection already deployed to state agencies. Federal grant timing is uncertain, but the direction — secure infrastructure, endpoint, and managed security spanning state and local — is durable demand.
Governed AI Adoption (2026 CART Act)3
Statute enacted; governed adoptionAfter the broad SB 2 AI-regulation bill died in 2025 under a Lamont veto threat, Connecticut enacted a reworked omnibus AI law — SB 5, the Connecticut Artificial Intelligence Responsibility and Transparency Act ('CART Act'), Public Act 26-15 — signed June 2, 2026, with provisions phasing in October 2026 through January 2028. It pairs companion-chatbot self-harm-detection protocols, AI-in-employment (AEDT) disclosure, generative-AI provenance/watermarking, frontier-model whistleblower protections, and youth online-safety limits. Agencies pilot AI cautiously ('low and slow,' humans-in-the-loop), including in education via the CIO-chaired Commission for Educational Technology. The opening is governed, auditable, private/on-prem AI for sensitive data, not open public models.
Data Centers — Throttled by Energy Costs4
SlowingUnlike Sun Belt states, Connecticut is deliberately slowing hyperscale data centers: a 1.5M-sq-ft campus tied to the Millstone nuclear plant was scrubbed, and the Lamont administration is advancing a 'bring your own power' framework plus a PILOT (payment-in-lieu-of-taxes) model so host towns capture revenue. Electric rates rank among the nation's highest, and a 20–30 year tax-incentive program from 2021 has drawn only one taker; legislators are even weighing rollback of those incentives. Do not lead with AI-factory scale here — the in-state opportunity is governed enterprise AI and research computing, not hyperscale buildout.
Procurement & Competition
The Department of Administrative Services (DAS) is the central procurement authority, and its Bureau of Enterprise Systems & Technology (BEST) is the central technology organization. Most state technology buys run through DAS statewide (master) contracts via the CTsource eProcurement portal; IT procurements above $500,000 are reviewed by BEST. DAS can also approve agency use of certain federal vehicles (e.g., GSA) under cooperative-contracting authority.
| Vehicle / gate | What it means for Dell |
|---|---|
| DAS Statewide / Master Contracts | Primary vehicle. Pre-competed agreements for hardware, software, and services available to state agencies and many municipalities — confirm Dell agreements and resellers are current and correctly scoped. |
| CTsource eProcurement Portal | The single statewide portal to register, search, and respond to solicitations and contracts; register and monitor here. |
| Cooperative / GSA contracts | DAS can approve agency use of certain federal contracts (e.g., GSA) under CGS 4a-66(b) — a path where a statewide contract is absent. |
| Key buying entity | Role |
|---|---|
| DAS / BEST | Central procurement and central IT; reviews IT buys above $500K and sets statewide technology direction. |
| Dept. of Emergency Services & Public Protection (DESPP) | Public-safety technology buyer; State Police modernization funded in FY2027. |
| UConn | Large research-computing and edtech buyer; a DAS–UConn purchasing partnership saves the state ~$38M annually. |
| Yale University | Major private research institution and independent research-computing / AI-infrastructure buyer. |
Connecticut is a centralized, cost-disciplined market. Buying runs through DAS statewide contracts and the BEST review gate, and the state operates under a spending cap — so differentiation comes from consolidation/shared-services fit, governed-AI and security capability, and lifecycle/avoided-cost value rather than raw price or speculative AI scale.
Power Structure
| Decision-maker | Why they matter |
|---|---|
| Ned Lamont4 Governor · State of Connecticut | Cost-conscious; blocked the broad SB 2 AI bill in 2025, then signed the reworked omnibus CART Act (SB 5 / PA 26-15) on June 2, 2026, and is throttling new data centers over energy costs. Favors targeted tech (quantum in Fairfield County, an AI center near Stamford). |
| Michelle Gilman13 Commissioner · Department of Administrative Services (DAS) | Leads DAS — the central HR, procurement, and IT (BEST) authority — since 2022; named 2026 NASCA Vice President. Sets the administrative/procurement context in which BEST operates. |
| Mark Raymond5 State Chief Information Officer · DAS / Bureau of Enterprise Systems & Technology (BEST) | On the state leadership team since 2011; runs IT for ~39 executive agencies, the Connecticut Education Network, and chairs the Commission for Educational Technology. Owns the statewide tech direction. |
| Gene Meltser10 Chief Information Security Officer · DAS / BEST | Driving an enterprise-wide cyber consolidation — collapsing fragmented security tools into a single program and cutting investigation times from days to hours. A displacement opening for unified security/endpoint/automation platforms. |
| Sen. James Maroney3 Lead AI legislator · Connecticut General Assembly | Lead author of Connecticut's AI legislation — SB 2 in 2025 and the enacted SB 5 / CART Act (PA 26-15) in 2026; a national voice on state AI policy. Useful for reading where AI governance — and agency AI demand — heads next. |
| Office of Policy and Management (OPM)1 Budget & IT strategic planning · State of Connecticut | Publishes the state IT strategic plan and the biennial budget — the source of truth for forecasting tech priorities and spend. |
News & Signals
Sources
- CT OPM — State of Connecticut IT Strategic Plan (FY2026)
- CT News Junkie — Two-year $55.8B budget heads to Lamont
- Office of Governor Lamont — Signs AI / youth online-safety law (PA 26-15), June 2, 2026
- CT Mirror — CT wants more data centers for AI, but challenges remain
- UConn Today — Mark Raymond, CIO, State of Connecticut
- Office of Governor Lamont — Signs FY2027 State Budget (PA 26-68)
- CIS — State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program (SLCGP)
- CT DAS — Procurement Programs and Services
- NASBO — Summaries of FY2027 Proposed Budgets (June 2026)
- StateTech Magazine — Connecticut's CISO pushes a unified, outcome-driven cyber strategy
- Future of Privacy Forum — SB 5 in Five: Connecticut's new AI law (CART Act)
- CT News Junkie — Lamont signs bipartisan 2027 budget adjustment (PA 26-68)
- CT DAS — Meet the Commissioner (Michelle Gilman)
- Hartford Business Journal — CT considers 'bring your own power' model for data centers
- WFSB — Connecticut DCF says phishing attack compromised emails from two employee accounts
- Office of Governor Lamont — Governor Lamont Announces $20 Million Investment To Accelerate Hartford's Downtown Innovation Cluster
- Programs.com — Data Center Moratoriums by State: Tracker and Statistics (2026)
- CT Mirror — CT announces AI regulations for state employee health plans
- Connecticut Attorney General - Attorney General Tong Advises Connecticut Consumers and Businesses of Rights and Requirements Related to New and Updated Privacy Laws
- CT Examiner — Ransomware Attacks May Have Exposed Data of 12,600 in Connecticut