Cahill Opposes Balancing Budget on Students Backs

Calls cuts to TAP, SUNY and community colleges a threat to economic recovery

January 26, 2010

Albany – Assemblymember Kevin Cahill (D-Ulster, Dutchess) voiced his opposition to the Governor’s budget proposal that will slash student aid and balance the budget on the backs of students and working families. According to the Assemblymember, Governor Paterson’s plan would lead to reduced access to higher education, overcrowded classes, delayed graduations and yearly tuition hikes.

"This higher education plan is anything but rational. It is ill-advised to hinder the development of a competitive work force during a recession, but that is what this will do" said Assemblymember Cahill. "Tuition hikes should always be a last resort; instead Governor Paterson seems content with increases being the first option to balance our state budget."

"By design, SUNY has always relied on the State for the overwhelming majority of its resources. Tuition and student fees were never meant to be, and have never been, the main source of funding," said Assemblymember Cahill. "Allowing the institutions to turn to students and their families first hurts my ability to effectively advocate for the fair share of state funds that our public institutions deserve."

The Governor’s budget includes cuts to higher education totaling $321 million. The cuts include $95 million to SUNY and $65 million to community college. Moreover, it calls for across the board reductions of $30 million to the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) and sets the stage for a huge shift of state funding away from public higher education.

Assemblymember Cahill, who sits on the Assembly Higher Education Committee, stressed that giving individual SUNY schools the unilateral authority to set tuition is problematic in many ways. In particular, a tuition hike by a given school would not necessarily correspond with an increase in TAP funding. Individual schools may become unaffordable for many because tuition will likely outpace the growth of TAP. Currently tuition and financial aid decisions are made by the Legislature in order to maintain price and cost uniformity while protecting the quality and accessibility of the SUNY system.

"Being a graduate of SUNY New Paltz, I know the value of a quality public higher education and this plan is unacceptable. It flies in the face of a fundamental founding principle of the SUNY system, equality of opportunity based on academic merit." said Assemblymember Cahill. "I will fight to protect SUNY because it is New York’s most effective engine of opportunity and economic growth."

Assemblymember Cahill has successfully championed expanding fulltime faculty, creating new programs and restoring aid to our community colleges. At SUNY New Paltz, he has secured over $100 million in capital grants to modernize the campus. Projects include the renovation of the Student Union Building, Old Main, the Van Den Berg Learning Center, the Sojourner Truth Library and the Health and Wellness Athletic Complex. He also secured funding for a new Science building and has introduced numerous pieces of legislation to make SUNY more affordable.

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