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John F. Cape: 2006 Giuliani Award Winner

"Change is good. You go first"

On Monday, John F. Cape -- director of the New York State Division of the Budget and chief fiscal policy advisor to the governor -- received the 2006 Rudolph W. Giuliani Leadership Award. The award is given each year in conjunction with GTC East, and recipients have included such luminaries as its namesake, former NYC Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

(L to R) New York State CIO Dr. Michael Mittleman presents the 2006 award to John F. Cape

Photo: Jim Clayton


Cape was appointed director in Feb. 2005 and before that was acting director. His career in state service began in 1973 as a public management intern at the Department of State.

Cape is accomplished in public finance, organizational analysis and public pension financing. In 2003, he received the Charles Evans Hughes award from the American Society for Public Administration, and is a fellow of the State Academy for Public Administration.

Speaking to the CIO Leadership Summit at the Fort Orange Club in Albany on Monday, Cape joked that "Change is good. You go first."

But his message was optimistic. "I am a veteran of four gubernatorial changes," he said, "and change is good. It restores and refreshes. This governor is the first to establish a transition team budget. You will see the smoothest transition New York State has ever had."

Cape stressed the importance of linkages between technology and program effectiveness, saying it was an integral part of setting priorities and funding. "There has never been a more important or more exciting time for IT than now."

The state, said Cape, spends $14 billion on state operations and fringe benefits, but the actual cost of production is only 27 percent. "You couldn't survive in the private sector on that," he said. "Of that 27 percent, $1 billion plus is spent on IT, about 2 percent of our total budget, which is inordinately low."

New York State cannot continue under any political philosophy, said Cape, which continues to ratchet up taxation. "That leaves efficiency as the only way to reconcile that immovable object and irresistible force."

The key to efficiency, said Cape, is IT and wedding fiscal resources to programmatic concerns. "This is an exciting time in Albany," he concluded. "Those of you in IT in Albany should be more excited than ever before. The next generation of government will employ the next generation of technology."

Sponsors of the CIO Leadership Summit were CA, IBM, Oracle and SAS.
Wayne E. Hanson served as a writer and editor with e.Republic from 1989 to 2013, having worked for several business units including Government Technology magazine, the Center for Digital Government, Governing, and Digital Communities. Hanson was a juror from 1999 to 2004 with the Stockholm Challenge and Global Junior Challenge competitions in information technology and education.