Statement on the Final NYS Budget
The enacted New York State budget for next year (Fiscal Year 2026) provides a substantial increase for CUNY over last year’s budget. It also establishes a targeted program of free tuition, fees, and books for some community college students.
Funding for CUNY State Operations, which encompass the senior colleges, university wide programs and operations, and other initiatives, increased by $147.5 million plus an additional $34 million in to cover our PSC-CUNY collective bargaining costs. A portion of the funding to cover CUNY’s rising fringe benefit costs is included within the state operations budget, as are year-over-year increases for the college completion programs ACE and ASAP ($8M), the opportunity program SEEK/College Discovery ($564K/$27K), Murphy Institute/School of Labor and Urban Studies ($2M), and other initiatives. Funding for CUNY community college base aid increased by $5.3 million. This much needed extra funding brings the state closer to its community college funding obligation. The enacted budget also provides $284.2 million in capital funding to the CUNY senior colleges and $35.1 million in capital funding to the CUNY community colleges.
The governor’s Opportunity Promise scholarship, established in the budget, will fund free community college for students ages 25-55 studying in certain high-demand fields in STEM and education. Some two-year humanities and social science programs that tend to feed into senior college education programs will also be included in the program, which is funded at CUNY with an initial investment of $14.1 million. Unfortunately no new state funding was targeted to the operation of nursing programs at community colleges to accommodate the enrollment increases that the scholarship may attract. There is much more to do to win the free undergraduate tuition for all CUNY students that the PSC is calling for in the New Deal for CUNY, but the Opportunity Promise is a step in the right direction.
A proposed budget amendment that would have delayed New York City fully funding its pension obligations only to have them increase again after 2033 is not included in the budget. PSC members’ calls to their legislators during a March What We Want Wednesday drive were part of the successful campaign to defuse this pension time bomb.
For too long, the Mayor’s Program to Eliminate the Gap cuts have disproportionately punished the students at CUNY’s community colleges by depriving them of educational supports. These new state investments, and the recently announced $95 million restoration in the New York City budget for the community colleges, should be used to hire full-time faculty and staff and provide stability for PSC members and CUNY students as we face continuing instability in Washington.
In response to these budget details, PSC President James Davis said:
“Years of PSC member advocacy and political work has resulted in another state budget that will lead to real improvements for CUNY students, faculty and staff. The PSC thanks Governor Hochul, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, and their respective leadership teams for ensuring that CUNY has the money to fully fund our contract and hire hundreds of additional faculty and staff at the senior and community colleges.
“Investing in CUNY and the communities that we educate is the right way for Albany to respond to the attacks on higher education and funding cuts that keep coming from the White House and Congress. PSC members are committed to working with the Governor and the Legislature to protect the quality of a CUNY education –and keep our students and members safe– no matter what new outrages come out of Washington.”
