According to the poll, just 5.2 percent of the CIOs surveyed said they plan to increase IT spending over the next year. That's down from 9.3 percent of CIOs who said that in September.

"When you talk to CIOs -- I was a little surprised -- their CEOs got a little more cautious in September, when the price of fuel [increased] in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. And it did map in the forecast because of the uncertainty of the fuel prices going forward," said Gary Beach, group publisher at CXO Media Inc. in Framingham, Mass.

Beach said he expects the number of CIOs predicting higher spending to rise again in November. He estimated that about 7 percent of CIOs surveyed will say they plan to increase their IT spending over the next 12 months when the November results are released Dec. 1. "I think we have a hiccup [this month] with the storms, and it did dampen the corner-office forecast," he said.

One of the longer-term issues identified in this poll is that, once again, CIOs are struggling with application backlogs, Beach said. According to the poll, 57 percent of CIOs said that they have a backlog and that it's significant, he said.

"That means there's lots of work that remains to be done," Beach said.