Fight for Full City Funding of CUNY FY2027

Statement on Mayor Mamdani’s Executive Budget for Fiscal Year 2027

Mayor Zohran Mamdani released a $124.7 billion executive budget for FY2027 yesterday. The plan closes a historic budget deficit without service cuts. The budget achieves balance by relying on additional funding from the state, efficiencies and program reforms, a new pied-a-terre tax on luxury second homes, pension restructuring that has no effect on current or future retiree benefits, and an expansion of the timeline to achieve K-12 class size reductions.  

PSC President James Davis released the following statement about the budget: 

“What a change it is to have a Mayor who responds to a budget crisis with investment instead of austerity, “insourcing” to public servants instead of outsourcing to expensive for-profit vendors and taxing the rich instead of cutting CUNY and public services. Mayor Mamdani has baselined last year’s City Council addition of $15 million for community colleges, so that aid is secure and doesn’t require new action by the Council.  He has also invested $55.8 million in a five-year capital plan to help fix CUNY’s crumbling facilities. This budget amounts to a structural investment in opportunity for more than 80,000 community college students. 

We thank Mayor Mamdani for his tenacious commitment to affordability, the people of New York, and the services on which they depend, including CUNY. 

PSC will continue to advocate this budget cycle for a fully funded CUNY to ensure that as enrollment grows, all community college students have access to the faculty and services they deserve.”

PSC Budget Priorities

Rebuild Full-Time Faculty and Staff

• Fill all funded vacancies immediately
• Hire more full-time community college faculty to reach nationally recommended staffing ratios
• Create pathways for long-serving adjuncts to full-time roles

Free Transit for CUNY Students

• Provide OMNY cards to CUNY students, modeled on the K–12 program

Protect Grant-Funded Programs

• Bridge funding for programs losing federal research dollars

Expand Proven Student Success Programs

• Maintain and expand CUNY Reconnect
• Hire 352 academic advisors to reach a 1:100 ratio
• Expand the ACE program (senior college ASAP)
• Double annual ASAP cohort
• Hire 119 mental health counselors to reach a 1:500 ratio

CUNY enrollment is growing, but staffing and student services have not kept pace. A fully funded CUNY means more graduates, a stronger workforce, and a more affordable New York.