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Council Member Justin Brannan's opening remarks for CUNY FY2026 budget hearing
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Council Member Justin Brannan opens the fourth day of FY2026 executive budget hearings, focusing on the City University of New York (CUNY). He provides an overview of CUNY's proposed budget, highlighting key figures and changes from the preliminary plan. Brannan emphasizes the importance of CUNY to the city and expresses concern about its underfunding.
- CUNY's proposed FY2026 budget is $1.48 billion, a 15.5% increase from the preliminary plan
- The increase mainly comes from baseline PEG restorations and collective bargaining agreements
- Brannan indicates his questions will focus on tuition adjustment, CUNY's headcount and vacancies, and the CUNY Reconnect program
Justin Brannan
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Thank you, sergeant.
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Okay.
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Good morning.
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Welcome to the fourth day of FY twenty six executive budget hearings.
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Today we'll be hearing from the City University of New York.
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I'm council member Justin Brannan.
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I live here now and I chair the committee on finance.
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I'm pleased to be joined by my colleague council member Eric Dinowitz who chairs the committee on higher education.
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We've been joined by council members Brewer, Williams, Carr and Salam.
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Welcome Chancellor Rodriguez and your team.
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Thank you all for joining us today to answer our questions.
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As a reminder, this is a government proceeding and decorum shall be observed at all times.
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As such, members of the public shall remain silent at all times.
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We'll be taking public testimony on the CUNY FY twenty six executive budget today after CUNY has testified instead of holding one day at the end for all public testimony.
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If you wish to speak later today on the CUNY or the CFB FY '26 executive budget, please make sure you fill out a witness slip with the sergeant at arms.
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On 01/2025, the administration released the executive financial plan for FY twenty six to twenty nine with a proposed FY '26 budget of $1,480,000,000 CUNY's proposed FY '26 budget of $1,480,000,000 represents 1.3% of the administration's total proposed FY '20 '6 budget in the executive plan.
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This is an increase of 199,500,000.0 or 15.5 percent from the 1,280,000,000.00 originally budgeted in the FY '26 preliminary plan back in January.
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This increase results from several actions, mostly baseline PEG restorations and collective bargaining agreements for unionized CUNY workers.
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As of March 2025, CUNY had two seventy three vacancies relative to its FY '25 budgeted headcount.
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In the council's budget response, we called on the mayor to add 174,800,000.0 to CUNY's budget for various programs and $211,000,000 in capital dollars.
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CUNY remains a key pathway in providing upward mobility for working class families, and the budget should demonstrate that commitment to creating and presenting secondary quality education to New Yorkers.
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Everyone knows how important CUNY is to our city.
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Why this administration has been so proudly cavalier on underfunding CUNY is beyond me.
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But the council has fought very hard for CUNY over the years.
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My questions today will largely focus on the tuition adjustment, CUNY's headcount and vacancies, and CUNY reconnect, is very important to this council and to speaker Adams.
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I now wanna turn to my co chair for this hearing, council member Dinowitz, for his opening statement.