Capitol corner: Here we go again

Trustees’ plan for University needs enrichment

Less than two weeks before the governor’s 2003-2004 Executive Budget was scheduled for unveiling, the SUNY Board of Trustees finally adopted a budget request for the University’s state-operated campuses. The proposal is flat and is insufficient to meet the campuses’ needs, according to UUP.

At their Jan. 17 meeting, the trustees approved an 11th-hour fiscal request for 2003-2004 that maintained last year’s core instructional budget of $1.8 billion. And, while the trustees recognized that additional monies are needed for the campuses’ increased operating expenses, they made no outright request to fund them.

“It’s a shame the SUNY trustees aren’t better advocates for SUNY,” said UUP President William Scheuerman. “They should have taken the lead from CUNY and the regents,” he said, referring to both the CUNY Board of Trustees and the state Board of Regents, which submitted budget requests that were not only timely but sought increases for their systems.

“We all must do our share in these tough fiscal times but — like their colleagues — SUNY’s trustees must send the message that the University is important for New York and needs protection,” Scheuerman said. “The way to make that case is to request the strongest budget possible.”

Moreover, “after operating for years under flat and ‘bare-boned’ budgets, SUNY is cut to the core,” Scheuerman said.

The trustees’ budget request did define as priorities collective bargaining, inflation, enrollment growth and campus development funds, but their plan sought funding for these expenses only “to the extent resources are available.”

A possible source of that revenue is the tuition increase proposed by the board. In their request, the trustees recommended an increase in tuition of up to $1,400 a year.

“Instead of advocating for a state increase for the University, the trustees asked SUNY students and their families to bear the brunt of the burden by proposing a huge tuition hike,” Scheuerman said.

If state lawmakers approve the increase, SUNY must use the revenues it generates to continue providing the quality education and services students deserve, Scheuerman said.

“Otherwise, SUNY students and their families will get less for more,” he said.

In light of the board’s request for a tuition increase, if additional revenues are approved, sufficient funds will be available to address the trustees’ priorities, Scheuerman said.

Meanwhile, the state is coming off a record-breaking $8 billion deficit and will reportedly close its 2002-2003 fiscal year with a $2 billion hole to fill — only to face a budget deficit projected at about $10 billion for the year that will begin April 1.

“We’ll have to keep our seatbelts on for that one,” Scheuerman said, discussing the struggling economy with union leaders at a meeting last month of UUP chapter presidents and vice presidents.

In addition to the current recession and ongoing fiscal fallout from the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the state budget gap widened from “overly generous tax cuts of recent years,” Scheuerman said. “Backdoor tax breaks only exacerbate the problem.”

Rather, the state must balance the budget in a “sensible manner” to “ameliorate the deficit so it doesn’t turn into service cuts,” he said.

Despite the trustees’ lack of advocacy, UUP will work to help ensure the SUNY system is safeguarded for its members and University students — in a year the state is likely to make spending cutbacks.

“We’ll have to get the troops out this year more than ever before,” Scheuerman said to the UUP chapter leaders. “The stakes have never really been quite this high.”

— Lisa Feldman Reich