Wagner updates FSEC on budget
Greiner confident Legislature will restore TAP, salary money

By SUE WUETCHER
Reporter Editor

Although Gov. Pataki's budget proposal fails to include funding for SUNY contractual salary increases and inflation-a move that would have a $6 million impact on UB-President William R. Greiner is confident the Legislature will restore those funds.

"The vibes are that the salary money-the contractual increase money-and the inflationary money will be put in (the final state budget) as an add-on to the governor's budget," Greiner told the Faculty Senate Executive Committee at its March 3 meeting. Greiner, who had just returned from a trip to Albany, also said that he believes legislators will restore Pataki's cuts to the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP), noting that there "doesn't seem to be much patience" in the Legislature for cuts to the program that provides financial aid to eligible New York State students attending colleges and universities in the state.

The executive budget cuts TAP -which provides aid to not only SUNY and CUNY students, but also to students attending private institutions in the state-by $114 million. The cut would affect approximately 5,000 students at UB to the tune of more than $2.5 million, Senior Vice President Robert J. Wagner has estimated. However, Wagner told senators that the $2.5 million figure could be higher due to changes in eligibility guidelines.

Restoration of TAP money, as well as baseline funding for the negotiated salary increases and inflation-which together, Wagner said, make up a $150-160 million shortfall in the SUNY budget-topped the list of items outlined in UB's state advocacy plan that was presented to the FSEC by Wagner.

A third priority identified by Wagner was the restoration of the 20-percent cut by Pataki in the 1999-2000 allocation for the five-year SUNY capital plan that was approved in the current fiscal year. That cut, he said, essentially "takes a five-year capital program and creates a six-year capital program. The effort will be to restore those dollars in the capital budget for '99-2000 consistent with the five-year plan."

In addition to these state items, UB will be lobbying for some items specific to the university, Wagner said. These include: n $2.3 million to continue to upgrade the Division I athletic program-the football team will play at the Division I-A level beginning in the fall -and to meet Mid-American Conference requirements. A portion of the money would be used to achieve gender equity as part of the SUNY initiative to ensure that women have an equal opportunity to participate in athletics at those campuses moving to Division I athletics.

- $2 million to support UB's plan to reform and modernize administration of the practice plan in the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. The request is tied to SUNY's efforts to obtain funding for its three teaching hospitals at Syracuse, Brooklyn and Stony Brook, Wagner said.

- $5 million in capital support for the joint UB/Roswell Park Cancer Institute Biotechnology Initiative, as well as development of a Center for Advanced Technology (CAT), a university-sponsored research and business-development partnership to ensure the success of the initiative. While the capital support would provide the money to build facilities for the biotechnology initiative-of which about $2.5 million would be used for facility renovations on the South Campus and for the purchase of equipment for UB labs-a CAT could provide the operating support for those facilities, Wagner said.

- Support of the proposed transfer of the Research Institute on Addictions to UB from the state Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services.

Wagner said that UB also will focus its lobbying efforts to support some targeted SUNY system-wide initiatives for 1999-2000, including the SMART-NY program, a focused research-investment program led by the four university centers and Cornell, similar to the Graduate Research Initiative; the Undergraduate Engineering and Applied Sciences Initiative to increase the number of engineering graduates in the state; the Eminent Scholars Program that would endow new faculty chairs by attracting private contributions and matching them with state support; gender equity, and business systems and technology development.

UB will concentrate its efforts first on getting the baseline funding for university programs restored before moving onto the other items, Wagner stressed, noting that without base-budget restorations, "there's no point in talking about investments."

Greiner told FSEC members he felt confident that money for TAP and the negotiated salary increases would be restored to the budget.

"My reading (of the budget situation) is that maybe the governor's folks, the ones that advise him- and they're the key, in many respects-areŠreceptive to a message that SUNY's paid at the office for over a decade; we are now down at a very low level of tax support," he said. He pointed out that New York is 50th in the nation in terms of state tax support spent on operating expenses in higher education over the past 10 years. Moreover, in terms of absolute dollars, state tax support for the SUNY operating budget has declined nearly 18 percent over the past decade, he said.

But, Greiner said, there are long-time Albany insiders who are "looking for ways of dealing with this creatively, within the constraints" (imposed by the Division of the Budget).

"We could, conceivably, go into a different mode, with some very good outcomes," he said.

"At least it would appear at the moment that we're not going to take a major hit.