The budget fully funds salary increases in the PSC-CUNY contract and adds $23.5 million toward CUNY’s fringe benefits. It increases the senior college operating budget and devotes more than $500 million toward CUNY’s $7 billion backlog of deferred maintenance needs. It also holds the line on resident tuition, maintains the community college funding floor, and expands the state Reconnect program to offer free associate degrees for many students at the CUNY comprehensive colleges – City Tech, College of Staten Island, and Medgar Evers College – a new benefit previously restricted to community colleges. These are welcome investments in quality higher education, affordability, and New York’s economy.
Retirement security for CUNY faculty and staff and other public workers will improve significantly through reforms to the Tier 6 Teachers Retirement System (TRS) pension and the defined contribution Optional Retirement Plan (ORP). While there is more to do to bring Tier 6 retirement inline with the benefits offered to recent generations of public workers, PSC took part in an effective statewide campaign to reduce the retirement age from 63 to 58 (with 30 years’ service) for TRS pension members and cut out-of-pocket employee contributions along with a 1 percent increase in state contributions for ORP members, whose retirement benefits are typically administered by TIAA.
Important measures to protect immigrant New Yorkers from persecution by ICE were passed in the budget, including protections for sensitive locations against incursions by immigration agents, a right to sue over constitutional violations and a mask ban for law enforcement officials. While these measures fall short of the New York for All act and do not fully outlaw collaboration between local authorities and out-of-control federal immigration authorities, they will help to protect our communities.
PSC members and allies, and our champions in the State Capitol, should feel proud of what we have accomplished. But Albany could have achieved so much more for the CUNY community, for families who are struggling to afford life in New York, and for the New Yorkers losing their Essential Plan health insurance if this budget had approved tax reforms to make wealthy corporations and the ultra rich pay their share. The campaign to tax the rich in next year’s state budget starts today!
