In front of a crowd of 700, a Binghamton University student stood and addressed the governor of New York: “Where is the love for SUNY?”
Paterson’s response to the rallying interest groups — which ranged from labor unions to senior citizens — was consistent: “We have to share in the sacrifice.”
The Democrat governor defended his budget cuts Wednesday at a town hall meeting at Broome Community College in Binghamton. The financial crisis is the worst since the Great Depression, he said, and New York could face bankruptcy unless it shapes up its spending. He responded to the BU student and other advocates during an hour-long question-and-answer session.
To patch up a total state deficit of $15.5 billion spanning the current and next fiscal year, Paterson has trimmed funding from practically every sector, including education.
So far, Paterson has already taken 90 percent of this semester’s SUNY tuition hikes and plans to take 80 percent of next year’s total increase.
He said college tuition costs in New York state are lower than the national average. And, of the money that goes into education, 71 percent pays administrative salaries.
“Students aren’t the only victims of education cuts,” he said.
Even though the economy is in a downturn and tuition has been raised, Paterson said the state wants to offer the State University of New York system two alternatives.
One would be $350 million for a higher education loan program, which would aid students who are struggling to cover the increasing costs of tuition.
“We want to step in and offer assistance during this time of duress,” Paterson said.
The second option would be to divert spending cuts from institutional programs to the statewide education department.
SUNY brings in more out-of-state students than any other public school system in the United States, but 28 percent of those students move out of the state after graduating due to the lack of available jobs.
Paterson stressed the need to turn college research into economic development, which would create more jobs.
“Today’s ideas are tomorrow’s jobs, and they come from SUNY and our other independent colleges around the state,” he said.
Paterson also argued against the Fair Share Tax Reform, explaining that according to research, higher taxes lead to fewer new jobs and population loss in the state.
He urged that the state must reduce their spending habits instead, as the best rich-tax proposal he’d heard would only bring the state back $4.5 billion, which is $11 billion short of the overall deficit.
“The way out of this deficit is that every New Yorker must be part of this shared sacrifice,” Paterson said.
Natural gas drilling was the topic that received the most submitted questions from the attendees, as this industry could potentially bring a large number of jobs to the Southern Tier. Paterson mentioned that the state government supports this kind of drilling as long as it’s safe.
Richard Strube, an engineer from Vestal, said he would like it if the government spent less of its money overseas and more on finding renewable green energy sources.
Paterson lambasted federal tax cuts, saying that during this time that wouldn’t be a viable solution for the economic crisis.
“Cutting taxes doesn’t magically reignite the engine of our economy, as people will save that money instead of spending it,” he said.