For Immediate Release

May 9, 2025

United University Professions, America’s largest higher education union, today thanked Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state Legislature for additional funding for SUNY and SUNY’s public teaching hospitals in Syracuse and Brooklyn in the approved state budget.

The 2025-2026 state budget contains an increase of $114 million in state aid for SUNY and $450 million more in capital funding to build a new emergency department and annex at Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse. Downstate University Hospital received $750 million more in capital funding for what Brooklyn community members hope will be a new, reimagined version of the hospital that meets all of their inpatient needs.

“We thank Gov. Kathy Hochul, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and state legislators for delivering a strong budget for SUNY,” said Kowal.

Kowal said the additional $114 million in state aid could help as many as 17 cash-strapped campuses—many of them smaller, technical, agricultural and comprehensive schools located in communities across Upstate New York with multimillion-dollar deficits.

Kowal also thanked lawmakers for investing in SUNY’s public teaching hospitals. Upstate hospital is in in dire need of a new emergency department to replace its dated, crowded emergency room that strains to service a vast 14-county area. The $450 million in capital funding will accomplish that, he said.

With respect to Downstate, Kowal stated: “The governor has said that she believes in a stronger, better SUNY Downstate and we believe she’s shown her commitment to this vital public teaching hospital by including important capital funding for Downstate in the budget,” said Kowal.

He added, “While we are disappointed that an additional $250 million in capital funding in Senate and Assembly one-house bills was left out of the budget, we are committed to working with the governor and the Legislature to ensure that a new, reimagined and revitalized Downstate hospital reflects the community’s plan, which provides the inpatient health care services it needs and deserves.”