Political/ Legislative

CUNY BUDGET

Click here for more information (analysis, calendar & links to key documents) on the PSC's 2008 budget and legislative campaign.

Click the "Act Now" logo to send faxes to the Mayor, City Council Speaker and your Council representative.

Budget update. The state has passed a budget. Click here for an analysis. Meanwhile, Mayor Bloomberg has proposed $65 million in cuts to CUNY’s budget. We must act now to make sure those cuts are restored by the City Council and new funds added to meet critical needs at every CUNY campus. Click here to send faxes to your City Council Member, the Council Speaker and the Mayor.

City Council Members Join PSC Budget Effort to Stop CUNY Cuts. Fourteen City Council Members joined more than 150 City University of New York (CUNY) faculty, staff and students at a City Hall press conference on May 7th calling on the Mayor and the City Council to restore budget cuts to CUNY. The PSC also delivered 25,000 postcards signed by CUNY students, faculty and staff demanding budget restorations. Details.

HIGHER EDUCATION COMMISSION

In early 2007, former Governor Eliot Spitzer announced the formation of a Higher Education Commission, whose mandate was to identify ways to improve the quality of higher education in New York State. The Commission issued its report (12/17/07) and the governor highlighted it in this year's state-of-the state address on January 9th. Details and PSC response.

Posted August 17, 2007

PSC PENSION EQUITY BILL SIGNED INTO LAW!

Governor Spitzer signed our pension equity bill into law on August 15. For the tens of thousands of CUNY and SUNY faculty and staff who are in the Optional Retirement Program (either TIAA-CREF or the other ORP options), the new law will restore equity in mandatory pension contributions with our TRS colleagues.

In 2000, New York State enacted a law eliminating the mandatory 3% pension contribution by participants in TRS after they had attained ten years of credited service. The new legislation provides the same benefit, phased in over three years, to participants in TIAA-CREF and other ORP plans. The law provides for the City and State to pick up the employee’s required contribution, gradually increasing take-home pay for eligible faculty and staff by up to 3%—depending on your current level of contribution. (We will publish details of implementation of the law as soon as they are available.)

At the time of the creation of the ORP, it was the Legislature's expressed intent to ensure the equitable treatment of all public retirement systems. That intent is fulfilled by the new law.

The enactment of the law is a victory for thousands of hard-working faculty and staff at CUNY—and it’s a victory for public higher education in New York. The legislation will make faculty and professional staff positions at CUNY and SUNY more competitive by restoring pension equity and increasing take-home pay. It will help to enhance the academic stature of the state’s public university systems. The law is also a victory in the broader effort to restore public investment in public institutions—one of the PSC’s central goals.

We are grateful to the governor and the legislators who supported the legislation, and to the labor/management coalition that helped to make it possible. We are also grateful to our statewide affiliate, NYSUT, for working tirelessly on the bill, which the PSC originated. Above all, PSC members should know that our collective voice was heard. Thank you to thousands of faculty and staff who wrote and faxed and emailed and called to show your support for this bill. It was you the members—organized by the union as a political force—who won it. -- Barbara Bowen

On June 21, 2007, in the waning hours of this year’s New York State legislative session, the State Senate followed the Assembly in passing the pension equity legislation the PSC has long advocated that would give eligible Optional Retirement Plan (ORP) members (largely those in TIAA-CREF) an effective increase of up to 3% in take-home pay, a benefit that TRS participants have enjoyed since 2000, when legislation affecting most New York City employees was approved. Now we need to convince Governor Spitzer to sign it. Getting this far represents six years of steady work by the PSC to raise the issue, and then educate and mobilize to get legislation passed. The involvement of hundreds, maybe thousands, of PSC members over the years was critical—phone calls, faxes, e-mails to legislators, lobbying trips to Albany and more, it all made a difference.

At the time of ORP’s creation, the Legislature was explicit in its intent to ensure the equitable treatment of all public retirement systems. Legislation in 2000 gave members of the Employees' Retirement System (ERS) and the Teachers' Retirement System (TRS) who had ten years of membership or credited service in the pension system relief from contributions to the retirement system. The bill just passed allows ORP members to catch up with their TRS brethren. If signed by the Governor, it would eliminate the 3% deductions from paychecks and thereby would put an extra 3% in eligible members’ pockets. The deductions would be phased out over three years.

State leaders reached a budget agreement in Albany at the end of March and passed a budget on Sunday, April 1. The higher education portion of the final budget reflects six years of aggressive campaigning by the PSC to shift the budget from annual decreases to at least modest increases. It funds mandatory costs and some increases for CUNY, but falls short of the investment in CUNY the union advocated to reverse the effects of years of austerity. We will report on details as they become available.

Thank you to the hundreds of PSC members who lobbied, testified, and sent letters as part of this year's State budget campaign. [Posted 4/3/07]

On June 15, the City Council passed a $60 billion budget for the new fiscal year, starting on July 1. The deal includes a full restoration of the Mayor’s proposed cuts to CUNY’s budget request. PSC members worked hard for months to win the restorations; we met with City Council Members, signed and gathered 15,000 postcards to Speaker Christine Quinn and rallied outside City Hall on May 9. Thank you to all who helped make this happen—it would not have happened without PSC members. Though the restored funds represent a victory for CUNY and our students, we should not have to fight just to maintain the current inadequate level of funding. The debate should be about additions, not restorations, especially in a year of multi-billion dollar surplus. The budget does include some additions, which we secured working cooperatively with CUNY management and through the advocacy of several City Council Members. We are grateful to them and await final details, including on the funds available for new hiring of full-time faculty, a centerpiece of the union’s proposal.

Click here to read more about the PSC's city and state budget campaigns. [Posted 7/7/07]

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