Union leaders are building on the "best start in well over a decade" for public higher education, while also addressing concerns with Gov. Spitzer's health care spending plan.

"We have a unique opportunity to deliver excellence, accessibility and opportunity to all students," said NYSUT President Dick Iannuzzi. "By building on what is the best start to a budget in years, we can move closer to our goal of making our public higher education system the best anywhere, while fostering the economic growth that is so badly needed in many parts of our state."

Iannuzzi reiterated the statewide union's rejection of calls to privatize the State University of New York's three teaching hospitals.

Higher ground

In testimony before the Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means committees, NYSUT Executive Vice President Alan Lubin praised the governor's executive budget proposal but urged legislators to take the next step "and unlock the full potential" of New York's public colleges and universities.

"We are at a crossroads in public higher education and the choices are clear," Lubin said. "We can either choose to provide minimum funding to our universities so that they can tread water, or we can build on last year's progress by making a significant increased investment in these institutions, which is essential in order for them to grow, become more competitive and move further down the road to becoming the best in the nation."

Lubin and other union leaders said a significant investment is needed now to begin to reverse 15 years of chronic underfunding of the state and city university systems.

At the SUNY, inadequate state support has directly contributed to the dearth of full-time faculty, United University Professions President William Scheuerman told lawmakers.

"The lack of sufficient faculty threatens institutional quality and access. That's no way to run a university," Scheuerman said. UUP represents academic and professional faculty at the 29 campuses of the State University.

Barbara Bowen, president of the Professional Staff Congress, representing faculty and professional staff at the City University of New York, testified that even though enrollment is at a 30-year high, full-time faculty has dropped from 11,300 in 1975 to 6,300 today.

"College has never been more necessary than it is today; a college education is increasingly the prerequisite for even entry-level jobs," Bowen said. "Yet, CUNY has lost thousands of full-time faculty, seen its resources for classrooms, labs and libraries dwindle, and become an institution in which scarcity is the norm. Despite some notable successes, CUNY remains a severely underfunded university. Those who suffer most are our students."

Union leaders urged lawmakers to make significant increases in state operating aid to SUNY, CUNY and community colleges; encourage enrollment growth; and fund new full-time faculty lines.

Lubin and Scheuerman also urged lawmakers to reject a state panel's recommendations that threaten to take three teaching hospitals out of the SUNY system.

"If the Berger Commission recommendations are implemented, unique, life-saving, critical health care services not readily available at other hospitals will be jeopardized; first-rate medical care to all citizens of New York — regardless of their ability to pay — will be compromised, and graduate medical education and cutting- edge research will be diminished," Lubin said (See related story).

"The Legislature has been a great friend to our public higher education institutions," Lubin said, calling on legislators to "take advantage of this opportunity, build on past achievements and unlock the full potential of public higher education."

Health care

Optimistic about the call for reform in the health care system under new state leadership, NYSUT is still raising flags that some proposals in the executive budget for health, Medicaid and aging threaten the ability to provide high-quality health care.

NYSUT commends the "social consciousness" that is inherent in executive proposals for universal health care coverage for the uninsured, as well as efforts to extend both Child and Family Health Plus for those living in poverty, Lubin told the Senate and Assembly committees.

The union supports expansion of alternatives for home-based care, including more preventive care; and proposals to stockpile medications and supplies to deal with pandemic outbreak.

Actions proposed by the governor in Medicaid and HCRA translate into more than $1.2 billion in savings to the state in 2007-08. While NYSUT supports some of these actions, such as increased attention to fraud prevention, union members are concerned about certain reductions in payments to hospitals and nursing homes. Certain other proposed cuts could jeopardize the ability of health professionals to deliver high-quality health services.

NYSUT believes:

• Medicaid dollars should be spent on Medicaid receipts, not on fraudulent claims for unnecessary services or services never rendered. NYSUT applauds executive initiatives to strengthen the ability of the state to combat fraud and abuse in the Medicaid program. These actions are estimated to produce about $400 million in savings.

• A "sick tax" on gross receipts of hospitals is a burden on hospital and nursing homes, and means less money to pay skilled staff, which equals a reduction in the quality of health care.

• The call for cutting $220 million in the Health Care Reform Act should be rejected because it cuts money for workforce recruitment and retention. Reducing funding will do little to end the chronic shortage of health care professionals, specifically registered nurses, across the state.

• The omission of a total interagency bulk prescription drug program as a financial cost containment is a mistake. The state should be tackling the skyrocketing costs of pharmaceuticals with innovative bulk purchasing initiatives.

• Subsidies for SUNY's teaching hospitals should be improved: proposals are for an increase of only $6.8 million — far from the $29 million needed. NYSUT wants $22.2 million more to subsidize the hospitals to help alleviate chronic underfunding.

SUNY's teaching hospitals at Brooklyn, Stony Brook and Syracuse provide clinical care not available elsewhere. SUNY hospitals are directly accountable to SUNY trustees, the Legislature and the governor.

"If these hospitals are restructured and become privatized, direct oversight and accountability will be lost, the rigor and breadth of medical training will be compromised and the current level of clinical care will be jeopardized," Lubin testified. That clinical care includes expensive and unique services that might be discontinued or cut back under private operation.

"We oppose any reforms that sacrifice or diminish the health care professional work force and its commitment to providing direct quality health care to New York state residents," Lubin said.

Lubin reminded lawmakers that NYSUT members include health care workers, along with many retirees who depend on the state's public health care system.

— Clarisse Butler Banks and Liza Frenette