The State University of New York
The budget enacted by the Legislature makes the following changes to the Executive Budget (analysis as of March 30, 2006):
· Rejects the Governor’s proposal to privatize SUNY Hospitals.
· Rejects the proposal for the study of the sale of surplus land at SUNY and CUNY.
· Makes no changes to the State Operations portion of the Executive Budget
The Senate and Assembly made the following changes to the Executive Budget (analysis as of March 20, 2006):
Senate and Assembly rejected the Executive’s proposal to authorize the SUNY Board of Trustees to transfer the SUNY hospitals to the private sector.
Senate:
· Increased the All Funds appropriation to $6.27 billion, which is approximately $60.7 million more than the Executive Budget proposal.
· Increased by $56.6 million the appropriation in the All State University Colleges Program for Services and Expenses Central Administration. According to the Report of the Senate Finance Committee, the Senate’s actions will avoid a $500 million tuition increase and support University-wide programmatic initiatives, including additional faculty positions and enrollment growth.
· Rejected language authorizing the SUNY trustees to relocate programs and sell surplus properties in order to generate additional revenues.
Assembly:
· Increased All Funds appropriation to $6.23 billion, which is approximately $26 million more than the Executive budget proposed.
· Increased by $26.1 million the appropriation in the All State University Colleges Program for Services and Expenses Central Administration.
· Rejected Article VII language authorizing the SUNY trustees to relocate programs and sell surplus properties in order to generate additional revenues.
The 30 day amendments to the Executive Budget recommend the following changes (analysis as of February 8, 2006):
· Increases the Research and Public Services appropriation by $250,000 in the All State University Colleges Program due to the establishment of the Central New York Cord Blood Center at the State University Health Science Center at Syracuse.
· Increases by $22.8 million the appropriation for the Services and Expenses Central Administration program for additional operating aid to be distributed by the university trustees. This additional appropriation brings the total appropriation for this program to $78.1 million or a $63.38 million increase over the enacted SFY2005-06 budget. An explanation for this large increase and its implications for the SUNY hospitals should be sought at statewide labor-management
· Increases the appropriation for the General Revenue Offset program by $18.9 million.
· The Tuition Reimbursable program decreases by $22.8 million to a total of $102.2 million.
The Executive Budget recommends (revised analysis as of January 24, 2006):
· An estimated 39,400 FTE positions consisting of 23,300 positions supported through a combination of state tax dollars and tuition revenues and 16,096 positions supported by other funds. According to the Division of Budget’s Workforce Impact Summary Report there will be no positions abolished or lost to attrition in SFY 2006-07. In fact, the SFY 2005-06 FTE level is approximately 1,300 higher than originally estimated in the SFY 2005-06 Executive Budget.
· The budget proposes an 8%, or $459 million, increase in SUNY’s State Operation budget, rising from $5.7 billion to $6.2 billion. PEF has been informed by reliable sources that SUNY significantly underestimated their request for hospital funding, particularly for employee fringe benefit costs. The Chancellor is supposed to be requesting additional funds in his presentation to the Legislature.
· Legislation will again be introduced to allow the SUNY Board of Trustees to transfer operations of the SUNY hospitals to one or more private, not-for-profit corporations. If the Trustees approve the conversion (and there is little doubt that they will, if given the authority), 10,000 SUNY hospital employees would not be State employees. This means it is possible that current hospital employees could no longer participate in the retirement system, could no longer be represented by PEF and could no longer have Civil Service system rights and protections. The bill directs the Trustees to turn over a transfer plan to the Governor and the Legislature on or before October 1, 2006.
· An overall increase at Stony Brook Health Science Center of $93.1 million (13.7%). This includes an increase in personal services of $ 43 million (14.4%), an increase in non-personal services of $23.3 million (8.8%), an increase in fringe benefits of $24.6 million (24.8%), and an increase of $2.2 million (16.1%) in debt service. The purpose of these changes should be clarified at Labor-Management.
· An overall increase at Brooklyn Health Science Center of $64.5 million (17.4%). This is comprised of an increase in personal services of $20.5 million (11.2%), an increase in non-personal services of $27.5 million (22.4%), an increase in fringe benefits of $15.4 million (26.6%) and an increase of $1.1 million (14.7%) in debt service. The purpose of these changes should be clarified at Labor-Management.
· An overall decrease at Syracuse Health Science Center of $5.8 million (-1.2%). This is made up of a decrease in personal services of $5.1 million (-2.7%), a decrease in non-personal services of $7 million (-3.3%), an increase in fringe benefits of $4.4 million (6.6%) and an increase in debt service of $1.9 million (14.4%). The purpose of these changes should be clarified at Labor-Management.
· The recommended State subsidy for the SUNY hospitals, which recognizes costs attributable to their state agency status, is increased by $10.1 million for a total of $139.5 million to reflect collectively bargained salary increases and costs attributed to fringe benefits for 2006-07.
· A payment of $8.3 million for the State’s share of a multi-year effort by the SUNY hospitals and the State to address the accumulated deficit of the hospitals.
· Funding for the Long Island Veterans’ Home is increased by $2.2 million, or 6.4%. The purpose of these changes should be clarified at Labor-Management.
· The allocation of $1 million to support programs that are determined to have demonstrated an economic development or health impact. According to the Assembly’s 2006 Yellow Book an additional $2 million is to be provided from a reallocation of funds from lower priority academic programs.
· HCRA is currently scheduled to expire on June 30, 2007—Article VII provides additional amendments and allocations to the HCRA programs. There are HCRA changes that may have a long range impact on SUNY hospitals including: advancing the second $250 million installment for HEAL NY: $75 million for non-bondable technology and facility transition costs; investments in Medical Malpractice and Avian Flu vaccine; continue Workforce Recruitment and Retention Program; reduces funding for Worker Retraining program by 50%; requires hospitals to have established, published, and functioning Charity Care policies in order to receive payments from the Indigent Care pool; eliminates the School Health Policy exemption from the Graduate Medical Education (GME) point-of-service surcharge and will require previously exempt individuals to pay HCRA surcharges.
· Article VII legislation that directs SUNY to develop a plan in cooperation with the commissioner of the Office of General Service (OGS) to comprehensively inventory all SUNY facilities. According to the Assembly, such inventory would include a detailed list of opportunities to raise additional revenue through the relocation and sale of surplus facilities occupying highly valuable real estate space.
· Proposes Medicaid reform legislation, including: reducing GME payments; elimination of specialty rates for mental health outpatient programs; removal of inflationary cost increases from the hospital and nursing home rates; reducing detox reimbursement; extending hospital intergovernmental transfer (IGT) payments to public hospitals, including Health and Hospital Corporation and State-operated facilities; eliminating an outdated adjustment to hospital Medicaid rates that limit rate decreases if the hospital can demonstrate a decline in its average length of patient stay. Employment levels are not affected this year, but long-term evaluation of the impact of the changes is necessary and should be raised in statewide labor/management. (The Assembly calculated the Hospital Medicaid cuts as $163.3 million – State Share)
State University of New York
Program Details-State Operations
Enacted
Proposed
Enacted
Change in
Percent
Program
2005-06 Budget
2006-07 Budget
2006-07 Budget
Appropriation
Change
All Funds
$5,745,441,000
$6,205,081,000
$6,205,081,000
$459,640,000
8.0%
General Fund
$1,886,057,000
$1,960,625,000
$1,960,625,000
$74,568,000
4.0%
Special Revenue-Federal
$200,500,000
$200,500,000
$200,500,000
$0
0.0%
Special Revenue-Other
$3,646,884,000
$4,031,956,000
$4,031,956,000
$385,072,000
10.6%
Internal Services Funds
$12,000,000
$12,000,000
$12,000,000
$0
0.0%
Doctoral&Health Sci Campus
$476,833,000
$1,042,897,000
$1,042,897,000
$566,064,000
118.7%
SUNY Stony Brook
$128,281,000
$266,619,000
$266,619,000
$138,338,000
107.8%
SUNY HSC Brooklyn
$50,882,000
$78,530,000
$78,530,000
$27,648,000
54.3%
SUNY HSC Syracuse
$35,133,000
$58,493,000
$58,493,000
$23,360,000
66.5%
State University Colleges
$165,667,000
$604,776,000
$604,776,000
$439,109,000
265.1%
Colleges of Tech. & Agric.
$48,755,000
$158,708,000
$158,708,000
$109,953,000
225.5%
Statutory & Contract College
$114,427,000
$77,164,000
$77,164,000
($37,263,000)
-32.6%
All State University Colleges
$212,242,000
$292,946,000
$292,946,000
$80,704,000
38.0%
Research and Public Service
$12,198,000
$72,718,000
$72,718,000
$60,520,000
496.1%
Infrastructure & Tech.
$105,644,000
$29,210,000
$29,210,000
($76,434,000)
-72.4%
Student Svs & Financial Aid
$20,792,000
$53,351,000
$53,351,000
$32,559,000
156.6%
Educ. & Econ. Disadvan.
$58,891,000
$59,565,000
$59,565,000
$674,000
1.1%
Svcs & Exp Central Admin
$14,717,000
$78,102,000
$78,102,000
$63,385,000
430.7%
Employee Fringe Benefits
$868,133,000
$898,890,000
$898,890,000
$30,757,000
3.5%
Offset
$0
($1,114,756,000)
($1,114,756,000)
($1,114,756,000)
100.0%
Student Aid
$200,500,000
$200,500,000
$200,500,000
$0
0.0%
Special Revenue-Federal
$200,500,000
$200,500,000
$200,500,000
$0
0.0%
Special Revenue-Other
$30,000,000
$30,000,000
$30,000,000
$0
0.0%
College Work Study Acct (SRF)
$24,000,000
$24,000,000
$24,000,000
$0
0.0%
SUNY Pell Program Acct (SRF)
$175,000,000
$175,000,000
$175,000,000
$0
0.0%
Federal Scholarship Acct (SRF)
$1,500,000
$1,500,000
$1,500,000
$0
0.0%
State University Restricted Current Fund (SRO)
$30,000,000
$30,000,000
$30,000,000
$0
0.0%