Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced his budget Tuesday, making changes to higher education in New York state by cutting funding to public state schools but not to the state’s Tuition Assistance Program, in which some Syracuse University students participate.

The New York state budget faced an estimated $10 billion deficit for the upcoming fiscal year, a gap the governor promised to close through budget cutting but not through new taxes. Along with changes to higher education, Cuomo proposed reducing the size of the state government, establishing 10 Regional Economic Development Councils and merging several state agencies, among other changes.

Unlike Cuomo’s decision to avoid cutting funding from TAP, former Gov. David Paterson cut 10 percent from the budget for the program last year.

TAP administers student loans and a savings program for college students and their families, in addition to offering financial guidance.

Cuomo proposed no increase to tuition costs at the State University of New York schools but did propose funding cuts to SUNY and City University of New York schools.

Cuomo’s budget represents a ‘mixed bag’ for students in higher education, said Ted Traver, project coordinator of the New York Public Interest Research Group.

‘There’s a couple really positive things and a couple that are lukewarm,’ Traver said.

Cuomo followed a 15-year trend of making cuts to higher education, Traver said. But changes could have been worse. Traver said he had anticipated deeper cuts to TAP and was pleased to see the governor protecting SUNY tuition.

The governor has promoted himself as a supporter of higher education, stating in his January State of the State address that higher education would be the ‘key economic driver’ for the state. Lt. Gov. Robert Duffy has been given the task of organizing regional councils to forge partnerships between universities and private businesses. Duffy will appear at Le Moyne College on Thursday at 11 a.m. to present the state budget, according to a media advisory from the governor’s office.

Forty-one percent of 751 New York voters polled said reducing the deficit should be the governor’s top priority, according to a Jan. 31 Marist Poll. Cuomo’s proposed budget reduces the four-year deficit from $64.6 billion to $9.2 billion.

‘We simply cannot afford to keep spending at our current rate,’ Cuomo said in an Albany press conference Tuesday, unveiling the budget. ‘Just like New York’s families and businesses have had to do, New York state must face economic reality.’

dkmcbrid@syr.edu

 

 

 

Published on February 2, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Dara: dkmcbrid@syr.edu | @daramcbride