Final state budget has better higher ed support than initial proposals

By Jacquie Powers

New York state's higher education community ­ including Cornell ­ emerged from the annual, protracted budget operation without major reductions and therefore is in relatively stable health, Cornell officials said last week.

The nearly $68 billion 1997-98 state budget was approved Aug. 4, 126 days late. While essentially a stand-still budget for higher education in comparison with 1996-97, it provides better support than the initial proposals made by Gov. George Pataki in January.

In addition, the state has concluded salary negotiations for faculty and professional staff at the state-operated campuses of the State University of New York (SUNY) system, and legislation to be enacted in the coming months will authorize comparable salary increases for Cornell's statutory college faculty and professional staff, administration officials said. Increases will be authorized for the current year and next, and some provisions will be retroactive.

"We are very pleased with the legislature's support throughout the budget process," Cornell President Hunter Rawlings said. "In restoring funds for higher education the legislature has recognized the importance of higher education to the health and well-being of the state of New York.

"And we are especially pleased to be able, after two years, to recognize the valuable contributions of our statutory college employees with overall pools for base salary increases that total 11 percent through fall 1999, in addition to a cash lump sum and retroactive payments."

Pataki's initial proposal left a gap of $64.1 million in operating support for SUNY, called for an increase in tuition of up to $400 a year for SUNY students that amounted to $60 million in revenue and proposed cuts in the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP), Bundy Aid and operating support for both the City University of New York system and the community colleges.

The final budget restored most of the cuts recommended in the Executive Budget and eliminated the proposed SUNY tuition increase. Overall state operating support for SUNY increased by about $118 million over the governor's proposal.

"We are particularly pleased with the increase in Bundy Aid, which recognizes the valuable role played by independent institutions in the state, and with the additional funding for necessary improvements to the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station at Geneva, so important to the state's agricultural industry," said Henrik N. Dullea, vice president for university relations.

For Cornell's statutory colleges ­ the College of Human Ecology, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, School of Industrial and Labor Relations and College of Veterinary Medicine ­ the final budget appropriation was $122.7 million, $5.7 million more than was proposed by the governor.

That increase in funding for Cornell closed what would have been a $5.2 million gap in minimum statutory college operating requirements for 1997-98 under the governor's proposal, said Nathan W. Fawcett, Cornell's director of statutory college affairs. And, Fawcett added, had the proposed SUNY tuition increase been approved, tuition for students in Cornell's statutory colleges would have had to increase even more than it did.

Fawcett said that while the actual operating budget allocated to the statutory colleges by SUNY will be determined by SUNY's 1997-98 financial plan, and probably will reflect adjustments for energy savings as well as allocations from some SUNY-wide programs, "For the first time in more than eight years, the statutory colleges can look forward to stable state operating support."

Dullea noted, however, that the lack of new funds to address emerging priorities is a cause for concern.

"At a time when the governor and the Legislature are adopting the largest increase in state aid to elementary and secondary education in the state's history, and when the president and Congress just came through with unprecedented support for higher education in a historic tax bill, the lack of forward movement for New York state's entire public higher education sector remains a serious concern," Dullea said.

The final budget includes $44.3 million for Bundy Aid, $5.3 million more than the $39 million allocated in the governor's proposal. Cornell's share of the total, about $2.3 million, funds student financial aid.

Among other highlights, the budget includes $600,000 for improvements at the Agricultural Experiment Station at Geneva; renewed funding of $250,000 for the Cornell Program on Breast Cancer and Environmental Risk Factors in New York State; renewed funding of $240,000 for the Labor Studies Program and $220,000 for the Program in Employment and Workplace Systems (PEWS); renewed funding of $350,000 for North Country Agricultural Research; renewed funding of $25,000 for the Women and Work Institute; new funding of $262,000 for the Alternative Dispute Resolution Center, of $75,000 for Apiary research, of $100,000 for Onion Industry Research and of $100,000 for a Deer Contraception Program; and level funding of $2.9 million for the Cornell County Cooperative Association program statewide.

Also included is $1 million for the Center for Advanced Technology in Biotechnology at Cornell. Pataki first proposed eliminating $13 million in funding for the state's Centers for Advanced Technology (CATs), but later restored that funding when he amended his budget proposal.

Fawcett said the salary programs for faculty and professional staff in the statutory colleges will provide:

• A 2 percent across-the-board salary increase effective in fall 1997, 1 percent of which will be retroactive to July 1, 1996, and 1 percent retroactive to July 1, 1997;

• A one-time cash lump sum of $1,250 payable soon after authorizing legislation is enacted;

• A 3.5 percent salary increase pool effective Jan. 1, 1998;

• A 1 percent salary increase pool effective in fall 1998;

• A 3.5 percent salary increase pool effective Jan. 1, 1999;

• A 1 percent salary increase pool effective in fall 1999.

If the necessary SUNY and legislative approvals are in place, the first series of payments for faculty and professional staff will appear in October. However, delays in those approvals, Fawcett cautioned, could in turn delay the timing of those initial payments.

Fawcett noted that salary programs approved for overtime-eligible employees in the statutory colleges were announced in January. One-time cash lump sums of $550 and $700 already have been paid, and 3.5 percent pools for ongoing salary increases will be available in October 1997 and October 1998, he said.

In addition, Cornell currently is negotiating with SUNY for small, supplemental increase pools for overtime-eligible employees in lieu of the increments and extra longevity step increases that comparable employees in state-operated SUNY units are receiving.

"With the addition of these supplemental amounts, the pools of funds available to address the salary increase needs of overtime-eligible staff will be comparable in size to those for faculty and professional staff," Fawcett said. "Salary increase programs for represented statutory college employees are governed by their collective bargaining agreements."

State Budget Allocations for Cornell University

* Fund allocation, to be determined in the SUNY financial plan, may be somewhat lower.