When President Obama announced his stimulus package, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, many noted that electronic health records and smart grids were centerpieces where stimulus dollars would be concentrated in large amounts, reinvigorating the industry.

But the New York Times business tech blog notes that even more money might come to the IT sector from state and local governments, according to Joaquin Gonzalez, director of research for CivicUS.

Mr. Gonzalez estimates that between $250 billion and $300 billion of the stimulus funding is targeted for state and local government projects intended to modernize and improve the efficiency of public services. The kind of efficiency improvements being eyed are almost all based on more and smarter use of computers and information technology, which may cause a boom of hiring and spending at the local government level.

That legislation also calls for detailed tracking of the federal funds, which means many companies are scrambling to provide project-monitoring software for the various governments, according to CivicUS.

Computer and information systems manager jobs were expected to rise 16% from 2006-2016 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, but the surge of new funding may mean those estimations are too low.