Bare-bones budget needs supplement for SUNY

Hours before setting a record for lateness, state lawmakers early last month passed a base line budget that did not provide ample funding for SUNY, but did give UUP ammunition for action.

The $79.6 billion plan is a basic spending package that includes only the minimums required to keep the state running. It also highlights the need for legislative leaders and the governor to return to the table to negotiate a supplemental budget.

UUP took immediate action and developed advertising, letter-writing and lobbying campaigns designed to ensure that lawmakers add sufficient support for SUNY in a supplemental budget. An increase to the University’s funding is essential for additional full-time faculty lines; an adequate solution to the deficit at SUNY’s teaching hospitals; new campus priorities, such as the four-year programs at the University Colleges of Technology and the trustees’ core curriculum; and pension equity for members in optional retirement systems.

“This bare-bones budget does not adequately address the University’s needs,” said UUP President William Scheuerman. “Unless it’s greatly enhanced, this budget will lead to shortfalls at SUNY.”

An ad, which is running in print media in the Capital District, Binghamton, Buffalo, Long Island, Rochester and Syracuse areas reads: “A base line budget is no budget for SUNY. IT’S OUTRAGEOUS!” An ad for campus newspapers was also being planned.

In a direct mailing to the membership, Scheuerman urged all UUPers to contact their state legislators and the governor to emphasize the importance of passing a supplemental budget that protects the future of public higher education in New York. Members of the union’s Legislation and Political Action committees got a jump on what Scheuerman characterized as an “intensive letter-writing campaign” by sending dozens of electronic messages and other letters to lawmakers during their summer meeting in Lake Placid.

Meanwhile, Scheuerman has been meeting with top lawmakers and University administrators; volunteer lobbyists are also back at the Capitol and district offices to reiterate the union’s call for a strong fiscal plan that safeguards SUNY’s faculty, hospital patients and students.

As enacted, the budget funds the University’s contractual obligations to academic and professional faculty and maintains the $92 million that the governor proposed toward a resolution to the ongoing fiscal crisis faced at the SUNY teaching hospitals. It also includes some money to cover inflation.

“Substantial additions to this budget are needed to fortify our University system,” Scheuerman said. “State-operated campuses and hospitals cannot continue to run on a minimally state-supported bottom line.”

— Lisa Feldman Reich