By Matt Hirsch
New York Governor Kathy Hochul couldn’t come to a deal with lawmakers to pass a new state budget by the Apr. 1 deadline, which includes new CUNY and SUNY budgets.
Hochul had proposed a record-setting $216.3 billion executive budget, but state senators are shooting for a $6 billion increase. Bail reform and casinos are a few key issues holding the budget back.
Governor Hochul proposed $1.5 billion for SUNY and CUNY over the next five years. However, senators such as Andrew Gounardes, who sponsors Senate Bill S4461A, the New Deal for CUNY, are asking for a $500 million increase. The New Deal for CUNY would make tuition free at all CUNY colleges. As well as increase the full-time faculty-to-student ratio and raise pay for adjunct professors. It would also increase the ratio of mental health professionals to students from about 1:2,700 to 1:1,000.
On Mar. 30, CUNY faculty, staff, and students held a rally at Lehman College in the Bronx to advocate for the new deal. New York City District 11 Council Member Erik Dinowitz attended the rally and spoke on behalf of the budget increase.
“CUNY is a vehicle for upward mobility. It provides education to people who are going to go out and make our city better,” Dinowitz said. “But it’s not about the numbers. It is about investing in people…like the students behind us.”
CUNY Rising Alliance (CRA), a coalition of over 30 organizations, made its way up to Albany last week to advocate for the new budget. Previously, CRA marched over the Brooklyn Bridge for the cause.
Notably, a March 2021 report by then New York City Comptroller, Scott Stringer, showed that CUNY alums make up about 10% of the city’s private workforce. They account for a combined $57 billion in annual revenue and pay about $4.2 billion in state income taxes. The New Deal for CUNY is an investment in the economic future of New York City, many advocates argue.
“The key to economic recovery out of this pandemic is to invest in people, not one-time corporate giveaways with little, if any, guarantees to better residents and workers’ lives,” said Stringer in a statement to PSC CUNY. “I know the value of a CUNY education…I know the economic return is worth it.”