A year after Northrop Grumman Corp. took over Virginia's governmental computer and communications infrastructure, some state agencies are finding that they're taking a hit in the wallet.

In 2003, the state created VITA -- the Virginia Information Technologies Agency -- to manage the technology resources for all 91 executive branch agencies, including the health, motor vehicles and state police departments. The plan was for VITA to be, in state jargon, a "public-private partnership," run by an outside company. In late 2005, McLean, Va.-based Northrop Grumman was given that $1.9 billion, 10-year contract. It formally took over VITA in July 2006.

Previously, each department handled its own IT needs, creating a hodgepodge of systems. The idea behind VITA was to streamline the technological bureaucracy.

Under VITA, the IT systems, from desktop computers to massive databases, have been standardized, and the state government given a single data infrastructure.

All this was expected to save tens of millions of dollars -- in the long run.

"It's a stunningly bold endeavor that should have amazing payoffs," said James Burns, deputy commissioner for public health programs and chief information officer for the Virginia Department of Health. "But we're so down in the weeds -- the worker bees of us -- that it's really hard to see that because all we see is the pain."

That's because individual departments, instead of treating IT costs as a somewhat flexible budget item, are now getting a monthly bill from VITA based on the number and type of computers, phones and other equipment they use.

Before VITA, departments had a lot of wiggle room, Burns said. At the end of the fiscal year, if there was money available in the budget they'd buy more computers. If there wasn't money, they'd make existing equipment last another year. "That's one of the cushions ... that many work units use to help manage their budget," he said.

With VITA, the flexibility is gone; the monthly fees are fixed. Some agencies have seen costs jump hundreds of thousands of dollars -- or more.

Worse, whatever preparation time they had was unexpectedly erased by the federal government. VITA was to be phased in through 2008, but in December 2006 the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said it wanted the monthly payment system implemented sooner -- six months ago, in fact. Because various Virginia departments receive federal funding, the state had to comply and make the new billing system retroactive to July 1, 2006. Then began the scramble to balance their budgets.

The state police, for example, had expected to spend about $1.4 million on IT in the 2006-07 fiscal year. Instead, the bill is more than $3 million, according to Maj. Robert Kemmler, deputy director of its Bureau of Administration and Support Services.

In response, the police are cutting back on travel for out-of-state training and eliminating spring firearms classes.

The Department of Conservation and Recreation saw its IT costs increase about $550,000 under VITA, according to department spokesman Gary Waugh. That's more than a 50 percent jump over its previous $1 million budget.

To help pay for that increase, the General Assembly approved $340,000 in funds. But next year, Waugh said, his department is likely on its own.

Not every department found itself getting the short end of the stick. The Virginia Department of Transportation saw its IT costs go down under VITA.

"We had budgeted for about $40.5 million for computer-related expenses," said VDOT spokeswoman Donna Purcell Mayes. "We are going to be spending $37 million, so we are in good shape."

The Department of Health took a small hit -- about 5 percent over what it had expected. But the money wasn't as big an issue as the timing.

As Burns put it, "The difference between pay-at-the-end versus a pay-upfront creates its own set of challenges." No longer could the department decide whether to buy or wait based on what was left over.

To cope, health officials have restricted employees' travel and implemented a hiring freeze to deal with what Burns termed "a sticker shock problem."

Still, he thinks VITA is a good thing in the long term.

A good deal of the pain is caused by VITA's fixed-costs structure. "You're definitely losing flexibility," Burns said, but added, "You gain predictability."

And that, said Richard Brown, director of the Department of Planning and Budget, is part of the point. But it's also about fixing things, he said.

For example, in December an auditor reported that more than three-quarters of executive branch agencies had inadequate security programs. "That meant we needed to do something about it," Brown said, and doing something about it costs money.

IT costs also have gone up because the state does more.

Brown said the Department of Corrections built new facilties, while the Department of Motor Vehicles added PCs for consumers to its service centers, and the state police have a major project to upgrade their communications systems.

"All that," Brown said, "represents new work."