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GOVERNOR PATAKI’S 2005-06 HIGHER EDUCATION BUDGET PROPOSAL

Governor Pataki’s 2005-06 Executive Budget proposal is devastating for New York’s college students and their families. The Governor’s budget allows for tuition increases at SUNY and CUNY and recommends automatic annual tuition increases for the future. In addition, he proposes restructuring the state’s Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) and cuts to financial aid opportunity programs. His budget, however, does allot minimal increases for SUNY and CUNY operating funding, and maintains current funding levels for community colleges and Bundy Aid.

Specifically, Governor Pataki recommends the following:

• Tuition hikes at SUNY and CUNY. The Governor’s 2005-06 budget proposal allows for a $250 tuition increase at CUNY and a $500 tuition increase at SUNY. This is terrible news considering college students just got hit two years ago with whopping tuition increases.


• Annual Tuition Increases. The Governor recommends that tuition increase annually at the state’s public colleges, set to an index such as the Higher Education Price Index (HEPI). This would mean that tuition would increase every year at a rate of about 4%, and would perhaps increase more if the state did not amply fund the colleges. [Click here to read fact sheet on tuition indexing in other states.]


• Restructuring of TAP. The Governor has proposed that the state withhold one-half of all TAP grants and only release those funds when a student graduates. The Governor’s plan will only make it harder for needy students to afford college and will force them to take out loans to fill the gap left in their TAP award under the Governor’s plan. [Click here to read the facts on TAP and the governor’s proposal.]


• Cuts to opportunity programs. In his 2005-06 budget proposal, Governor Pataki recommends eliminating the financial aid aspects (but retain the tutoring and counseling components of the programs) of the state’s opportunity programs like EOP, HEOP, SEEK, and College Discovery. This would amount to a $24.7 million total cut. These highly successful programs provide financial and academic assistance to the state’s neediest students. Before the Governor’s reduction, these programs were already operating below their 1994 budget levels. [Click here to read more facts on the state’s opportunity programs.]


• Maintains funding for the state’s community colleges. The Governor’s Executive Budget maintains current funding for the state’s public community colleges at $2,235 per student. This is good news considering that the state’s community colleges are economic engines for their surrounding communities and the first step for a future of success for countless New Yorkers, and that any further cuts would likely force even more of the cost onto the students. The state’s public community colleges are the third most expensive in the nation. [Click here for a recent NYPIRG report on community college tuition.]


• Minimal increases to SUNY and CUNY operating budgets. Governor Pataki’s budget proposal includes small increases for the SUNY and CUNY operating budgets, but most of those increases rely on funding raised by tuition increases. These increases do not come close to the state funding SUNY and CUNY need after years of neglect from the state.


• Maintains funding for Bundy Aid. The Governor’s proposal maintains current funding for Bundy Aid or Direct Institutional Aid to the state’s independent colleges.

For more information contact Miriam Kramer

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