Cuomo Budget Calls For More Cuts to CUNY

Aimed at cutting spending and closing the state's widening budget deficit, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo's Feb. 1 budget proposal has become a source of concern for many in the CUNY community.In addition to major cutbacks on Medicaid and other public services, Cuomo's new proposal calls for a 10 percent or $70.1 million cut from CUNY senior colleges, a figure which would bring total budget reductions for the university system to $205 million over the past three years.

"The extra 10% cut to the CUNY proposed by Governor Cuomo will reduce both the quality of education that CUNY students currently enjoy and will tremendously limit access to higher education for untold numbers of people in New York City," said Adrian Paling, Brooklyn College NYPIRG Project Coordinator, in a statement to The Excelsior.

The CUNY Professional Staff Congress, which represents the over twenty-thousand faculty and staff throughout the university system, was quick to condemn the governor's proposal as an affront to the needs of New York's working class.

"Budget-setting is about making choices," said PSC/CUNY President Barbara Bowen in a Feb. 3 statement, "and this budget, in the state with the highest income inequality in the country, represents a choice to advance the interests of the wealthiest New Yorkers at the expense of the poor and middle class."

Sticking to his campaign pledge of no new taxes, Cuomo will let expire the 2009 "millionaire's tax," levying an income tax surcharge on New Yorkers making over $250,000, which raised over $1 billion annually. The burden of closing the state's estimated budget gap of $10 billion for the 2011 fiscal year will instead fall residually to citizens in the form of layoffs and cuts to vital services.

"The strength of New York state's economy comes from its working people, and although the governor promised not to raise taxes, such a drastic cut to the CUNY budget can be seen as a tax to thousands of New Yorkers," said NYPIRG's Paling.

While Governor Cuomo rejected a request by SUNY to increase tuition rates as a way to combat state aid reductions, new tuition increases could be on the horizon as schools contend with the budget cuts.

CUNY students, who have already seen a five percent tuition increase for the spring, with another two percent increase scheduled for Fall 2011, will likely feel the budget cuts with less full-time faculty, less course offerings and larger class sizes. Cuomo's budget will also maintain last year's $30.8 million cut to the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP), along with stricter guidelines for continued receipt of financial aid.

CLAS President Louis DiMeglio is realistic about CUNY's financial situation. "Do I want to see [more tuition increases] happen? No," said DiMeglio. "But if the state legislature cuts money, there's no choice but to fill in the gaps. If the Board of Trustees decides they need to raise tuition, they will."

With the current economic climate, an affordable public university system is seen as a necessity for students planning to enter the workforce. Complications of the budget cuts, including the possibility of delayed graduation schedules due to lack of course availability, creates a further hurdle for financially-strained students.

"A recession is not the time to increase tuition," said DiMeglio. "Do it during the times of prosperity when there's more money coming in [from donors] for scholarships. It's not fair to cut funding and raise tuition."

To help CUNY manage through its time of cutbacks, DiMeglio suggests forging stronger alumni relations to help bolster campus services.

"We need to get in touch with alumni who have been through CUNY and SUNY, wherever they are, and tell them to get in touch with the state legislature and get them to reinvest in our future."

DiMeglio contends that universities with strong alumni relations do not face the same threats to educational opportunities as a result of government budget decisions, and sees this as a way to ease BC's financial burden.

"Yale brings in more money per year through alumni than the entire budget of Brooklyn College," said DiMeglio.

The private university brought in $191.1 million from alumni donors alone in 2009-2010, according to the Yale Tomorrow Campaign Annual Report. The Brooklyn College operating budget for fiscal year 2010 was just under $113 million.

"Times of strife are when people get creative.