FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 16, 2023
Contact: Emma Bittner
(972) 510-3395 | Emma.Bittner@younginvincibles.org
New York Budget for Fiscal Year 2024 Falls Short for Young Adults
(New York City, NY) – The New York State Budget for FY24 fell short of promises made by Governor Hochul that would have vastly benefited young adults. While some instrumental funding was allocated to mental and reproductive health care, basic needs supports for the most marginalized young adults fell, once again, through the cracks.
Gov. Hochul’s budget lacks funding for affordable housing, one issue she identified as a topline priority to combat New York’s affordability crisis. In a state bearing the highest rent prices in the world and massive property values, affordable housing is essential to lifting financial stress and helping young adults to build generational wealth.
Tuition hikes for SUNY and CUNY in-state students outlined in the preliminary budget were successfully blocked by advocates and the legislature, and failed to make the budget. However, CUNY schools, in particular, were still left reeling from billions of dollars in underfunding from the past few decades. Significant programs to increase college affordability and enrollment were also sidelined, nixing expansions of tuition assistance and dual-enrollment programs.
The 25 New York City public colleges were denied significant investment into hiring full-time instructors instead of adjuncts, full-time academic and mental health counselors. Low-income students’ most essential needs were also omitted, such as food pantries and affordable housing. The bi-partisan Hunger-Free Campus Act, passed already in six other states, was also not included, broadcasting indifference to food insecure and hungry students statewide.
Mental health has been a large priority in the state and while funding was awarded to CUNY and SUNY, the amount was so small it would only allow them to hire about one more full-time licensed mental health professional for every other CUNY or SUNY school. The additional $1 million for CUNY and $2 million for SUNY awarded boils down to an additional $2-to-$3 per student. With the current rate of inflation, this “increase” can be more appropriately seen as flat funding, largely leaving college students out of the $1 billion Gov. Hochul committed to mental health.
While a bill was passed to allow greater reproductive care access on public college campuses via abortion pills, a larger and more comprehensive abortion access bill, The Reproductive Justice and Equity Fund, was deliberately omitted. This move denies funding to make abortions financially accessible for all people requiring them in New York State or traveling to New York for them while the U.S. Supreme Court attempts to roll back reproductive rights and bodily autonomy.
While New York has a large population of asylum seekers and immigrants, the budget does not include significant funds for these populations. Nine billion dollars in state surplus and billions more in potential federal funds from the 1332 waiver were left on the table, omitting DACA recipients, asylum seekers, and undocumented families from basic health care.
In response, Sean Miller, New York Regional Director at Young Invincibles said:
“Investing in young adults is critical to making New York a place where all young people can build a future and thrive. Instead, it’s only becoming more expensive, inequitable, and inhospitable. As a result, many young people with the means to leave New York are doing so, to finally build wealth, settle down, and have a decent quality of life elsewhere.
We were pleased that raises to SUNY and CUNY tuition for in-state students were not outlined in the final budget; however, every day thousands of students at our schools struggle to afford to eat, pay rent, and to get the mental health support they need. Our young advocates shared their lived experiences and testified before the state and city councils about these issues every month, yet they continue to be denied the needed funding.
Substantial funding for health care and reproductive care access is also essential. Even when it comes to abortion access, our budgetary statement of values was tepid when the current climate demands much more. We must invest in all forms of building healthy futures for New Yorkers: educational, economic, and physical health.Our higher education and health care systems deliberately turn their back on our most at-risk students and young adults. This budget shows that our state’s highest leader has absolutely no problem with that.
Overall, most of the investments made in this budget are short-term, limited in scope, or so frugal that they’re largely inconsequential. Gov. Hochul’s FY24 budget had potential to invest in young adults long-term, but it lacked commitment and innovation.
Young Invincibles will continue our unwavering fight for affordable and accessible higher education, health care, and a seat at the table for young adults.”
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Young Invincibles (YI) is a national advocacy and policy nonprofit organization focused on amplifying the voice of young people in the political process at the local, state, and federal levels. YI focuses on issues impacting young adults ages 18 to 34 in higher education, health care, economic security, and civic engagement. Our offices include Washington, D.C., California, Colorado, Illinois, New York, and Texas. For more information, please contact Emma Bittner at (972) 510-3395 or emma.bittner@younginvincibles.org