REVISED – 10 additional members signed on: Assemblymembers: Scarborough, Joyner, Cusick, Giglio, Tenney, Graf, Braunstein, Nolan, Brennan & Curran
March 13, 2015
Speaker Carl E. Heastie NYS Assembly Room 932 LOB Albany, NY 12248
Dear Speaker Heastie,
We are writing to you about the failure of the Executive to adequately fund the NYSUNY2020 Maintenance of Effort (MOE) as promised when we enacted this rational tuition policy which raised tuition $300 a year for 5 years. We made a commitment that we would ask more from students with an understanding that there would be a full MOE from the State in order for tuition increases to add faculty, course-offerings and resources.
The students and their families kept their promise; the State did not. The Executive has not kept pace with that promise. The money provided does not include all collective bargaining costs or inflationary costs for mandated items like energy costs. This year the hole in CUNY’s budget is $62.9 M and is $131 M in the SUNY budget.
We understand that this year is particularly difficult with all of the policy bills inserted into the budget. We feel strongly that our public higher education systems, CUNY and SUNY, deserve what has been promised to them and to the students and their families.
We are thrilled that you have raised Higher Education as a priority. We believe, like you, that college completion is crucial for the future of this state. Please raise the insufficient MOE in your budget negotiations. Before we can even contemplate additional resources for SUNY and CUNY, we need to have the MOE issue resolved.
Sincerely,
Deborah J. Glick Member of Assembly – 66th AD
Assemblymember Carmen Arroyo Assemblymember Charles Barron Assemblymember Michael Benedetto Assemblymember Michael Blake Assemblymember Kenneth Blankenbush Assemblymember Harry Bronson Assemblymember Kevin Cahill Assemblymember Barbara Clarkn cont. List of Signatories for the NYSUNY2020 Maintenance of Effort (MOE)
Assemblymember William Colton Assemblymember Marcos Crespo Assemblymember Clifford Crouch Assemblymember Michael DenDekker Assemblymember Jeffrey Dinowitz Assemblymember Janet Duprey Assemblymember Steve Englebright Assemblymember Patricia Fahy Assemblymember David Gantt Assemblymember Andrew Garbarino Assemblymember Richard Gottfried Assemblymember Aileen Gunther Assemblymember Andrew Hevesi Assemblymember Ellen Jaffee Assemblymember Brian Kavanagh Assemblymember Brian Kolb Assemblymember Joseph Lentol Assemblymember Barbara Lifton Assemblymember Guillermo Linares Assemblymember Donna Lupardo Assemblymember Chad Lupinacci Assemblymember William Magee Assemblymember Nicole Malliotakis Assemblymember Margaret Markey Assemblymember David McDonald Assemblymember Walter Mosley Assemblymember N. Nick Perry Assemblymember Roxanne Persaud Assemblymember Victor Pichardo Assemblymember Andrew Raia Assemblymember Jose Rivera Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal Assemblymember Michelle Schimel Assemblymember Rebecca Seawright Assemblymember Luis Sepulveda Assemblymember Sheldon Silver Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon Assemblymember Aravella Simotas Assemblymember James Skoufis Assemblymember Al Stirpe Assemblymember James Tedisco Assemblymember Fred Thiele Assemblymember Raymond Walter Assemblymember David Weprin Assemblymember Carrie Woerner cc: Assemblymember Herman Farrell, Lou Ann Ciccone, Jim Yates