Excerpted From: Utica Observer-Dispatch
June 08, 2008
The recent article regarding Gov. David Paterson’s response to union concerns about state budget cuts affecting SUNY completely misses the mark.
The $20 million funding increase for SUNY is no longer accurate, since it fails to account for the governor’s recent directive to SUNY to reduce its spending by $109.4 million.
Combined with a $38.7 million cut in the enacted budget, SUNY’s total spending reduction is $148 million, a number cited in the latest state Division of Budget publication, “The 2008-2009 Enacted Financial Plan.”
The article fails to mention more than 60 percent of the $4.5 billion in SUNY revenue it cites is not taxpayer-supported.
This revenue comes from students and their families in tuition and other college fees and from SUNY hospital patients’ payments and medical insurance.
As the union representing SUNY’s academic and professional faculty, our concern is these budget actions will seriously erode SUNY’s academic quality and the quality of its public hospitals.
PHILLIP H. SMITH
President of United University Professions