From:Newsday (Long Island, NY)
May 23, 2008
The recent article regarding Gov. David Paterson's response to union concerns about state budget cuts affecting the State University of New York completely misses the mark ["Paterson says he'll square off with unions," Newsday.com, May 17].
The $20-million funding increase for SUNY referenced in the article is no longer accurate, since it fails to account for the governor's most recent directive to SUNY to reduce its spending by $109.4 million.
Combined with a $38.7 million cut in the enacted budget, the net effect is a $148 million reduction in SUNY spending. Equally important, the article fails to mention that more than 60 percent of the $4.5 billion in SUNY revenue it cites is not taxpayer-supported.
This revenue comes from students and their families in tuition and other college fees, and from SUNY hospital patients' payments and medical insurance. Forcing SUNY to reduce spending of these revenues does not save New York taxpayers a dime and does not permit the revenues collected to be used as intended to serve those who paid for them.
As the union representing SUNY's academic and professional faculty, our concern is that these budget actions will seriously erode SUNY's academic quality and the quality of its public hospitals. The bottom line is these actions will adversely affect hundreds of thousands of SUNY students and hospital patients.
Phillip H. Smith
Editor's note: The writer is president of United University Professions.
Albany