Thank you to all the young advocates, organizations, and community members who showed up and supported YI to elevate young adult voices in the political process!  

New York faced a difficult state budget season that resulted in some wins ensuring affordable and accessible public higher education and health care for New Yorkers but still faces many challenges as we navigate the complex political landscape of competing priorities between the state legislature and Governor Hochul’s administration. 

As the state budget ends for this year, we saw both budget and legislative wins and misses. Our efforts included a culmination of storytelling, young adult testimony, sending letters to elected officials, a policy summit, conferences, rallies, and over 100 coalition advocacy meetings directly with legislators to center young adult voices and have them lead the conversation. 

How did we organize and mobilize? Our young advocates across the state came together with CUNY Rising Alliance, CUNY University Student Senate (USS), CUNY Professional Staff Congress (PSC) and NYPIRG on NYS Higher Education Action Day. Young Invincibles also partnered with the NY Healthcare for All Coalition, the NY and NYC Work-Based Learning coalitions, The Education Trust New York’s Equity Coalition, members of our own Statewide Higher Education Basic Needs coalition, New Yorkers for Responsible Lending coalition, reproductive access and legal advocacy organizations, and many others to organize and speak up for young adult policy priorities. Our unity and centering of young adult voices helped us to secure some significant budgetary and legislative wins for the 2025 budget. 

As the state budget concludes, YI NY will focus on advocacy for our New York City Policy Agenda in the 2025 NYC Budget, set to be finished by June 30th.

Higher Education

• $1.13 billion in new funding for capital projects to help maintain existing facilities at SUNY State-operated campuses and CUNY senior colleges and maintain the infrastructure of SUNY and CUNY campuses.
• $409 million for SUNY and CUNY operations.
  • $150 million for SUNY State-operated campuses
  • $146 million for CUNY senior college
  • $8 million for SUNY Community College
  • $5.3 million for CUNY Community Colleges

• Expanded Access to Financial Aid by Making FAFSA Completion Universal in New York State. Every senior graduating high school across NYS will now have the opportunity to file their FAFSA or through the NY Dream Act, and if they do not wish to share their information, they can sign a waiver. This brings students one step closer to expanding access to financial aid. 
• The minimum Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) award was raised from $500 to $1,000, and the student income limits for TAP eligibility were also increased. For the first time in 25 years, NYS has increased the tap income threshold. 

• The dependent student net taxable income (NTI) limit for TAP eligibility went from $80,000 to $125,000

• The independent married student NTI limit went from $40,000 to $60,000

• The independent single-student NTI limit went from $10,000 to $30,000 
• These changes were estimated to cost $66 million and benefit roughly 93,000 public and private college students, including 48,000 students newly eligible for TAP.

Health Care

• The Reproductive Freedom and Equity Fund (A361B/S348B) was largely included with $26 million for the Abortion Access Program. This expands New York’s capacity as a safe harbor for all who seek abortion care, amid inequities in access and national attacks on reproductive rights.

Budget Misses

Higher Education

• CUNY did not receive designated funding to hire more full-time instructors, advisors, or mental health counselors, including an expired contract with its faculty and staff. 
  • CUNY continues to depend on underpaid part-time faculty to teach and advise students. We must designate investment to improve CUNY’s student-to-full-time faculty ratio and ensure all students have access to quality education, guidance, and mental health counseling. 

• There has been no significant investment in college students’ basic needs in the state budget, including food security (The Hunger Free Campus Act), housing security (our Homeless Liaisons bill), and mental health (our Fix College Counselor Ratios bill). Ideally, these issues will be comprehensively addressed together through campus Resource Hubs, refunding the approach taken previously by CUNY’s Single Stop program, and currently embodied by the CUNY CARES pilot program, overseen by Healthy CUNY, at 3 CUNY Schools in the Bronx (Lehman, Hostos, and Bronx Community College). There is also not yet dedicated funding to secure and expand the Neighborhood Coalition for Shelter Scholars Program, year-round housing and supportive services to unhoused CUNY students.

Health Care

• Coverage for All was once again not included in the state budget. This bill would provide health insurance to low-income immigrants currently ineligible for coverage due to their immigration status.
• NY Health Act was not included. This bill would provide comprehensive health coverage for all New Yorkers, regardless of immigration status. It would eliminate coverage gaps and affordability burdens while ending our health care system’s deference to insurance companies with a single-payer universal health care system. 

Legislative Wins

Health Care

• The Fair Medical Debt Reporting Act was signed by the Governor in December 2023. This law prevents unpaid medical debt from impacting/harming New Yorkers’ credit scores and thus their ability to rent an apartment, buy a car, or open a credit card. This directly addresses one of the key issues discussed in our March 2023 report, Living With A Debt Sentence: The Impact of Medical Debt on Young Adults in New York.

Legislative Misses* These bills can still be passed until the legislative session ends on June 6th. 

Higher Education

• The Fair College Admissions Act (A1423A/S4170A) has yet to be passed. This bill would end the unfair practice of legacy admissions. 
• The Poll Workers Academic Credit Bill has yet to be passed. It encourages SUNY and CUNY institutions to grant course credit to students who work as election inspectors, poll clerks, or election coordinators; supporting academic attainment and civic engagement. 
• No dedicated funds to expand dual enrollment and college credit courses in high school

Health Care

• The Ounce of Prevention Act was not passed. Similar to the uniform application for Hospital Financial Assistance bill, this act goes further to hold non-profit hospitals by linking their compliance to the bill to the amount of funding they receive from the state Indigent Care Pool fund. 

Insights

Some other notable items in this year’s state budget include the Higher Education Capital Matching Grant program and major reforms to our State’s broken Hospital Financial Assistance Law (HFAL). We also saw a historic $350 million investment into a new supplemental tax credit for families eligible for the Empire State Child Tax Credit to support working families directly. Other issues we hope the state will pass include the Stop SUNY Suing Act, preventing the five SUNY hospitals in NYS from suing their patients over medical debt. 

Thank you to our partners, coalitions, funders, and the many young adults who make our YI NY network a bastian of young adult power, community, collaboration, equity, and bold ideas. #TogetherInvincible