Brendan McGovern, President, United University Professions Binghamton Chapter
New York has always believed in investing in its people, public higher education, health care, infrastructure, social supports. We send far more in federal tax revenue to Washington than our state receives back in federal aid. In short, we are a giver state. And now we are being punished by a federal government that sees organized labor, public education, and social investment as threats instead of strengths.
The so‑called One Big Beautiful Bill, signed into law this year, is a deliberate assault on states that fund public higher education and public service. This legislation guts Medicaid funding, slashes SNAP benefits, reduces federal loan support, introduces burdensome accountability standards for colleges, and imposes higher taxes on university endowments. Estimates show New York will lose hundreds of millions of dollars this year alone. Beginning in 2026, when more provisions take effect, our losses are projected at eight to ten billion dollars per year.
This is structural. It is designed to punish. It is aimed at the very institutions, public colleges and universities, that form the backbone of opportunity and mobility in states like ours.
The damage is already visible. Thousands of families across New York face hunger as SNAP funds run dry. School meals that hinge on SNAP qualification will diminish. Hospitals are warning of catastrophic Medicaid impacts, jobs will be lost, care will be denied, and campuses will feel the ripple. And in higher education, the changes are profound. The law places caps on graduate student borrowing that fall far short of actual tuition and living costs. Programs that do not meet earnings thresholds for graduates could lose access to federal loans and Pell Grants. Colleges face new endowment‑tax burdens while student aid and institutional support shrink.
This is an undermining of public service and public education. It is a message: prioritize profits, reward the powerful, and leave public institutions to fend for themselves.
Meanwhile, the ultra‑wealthy and large corporations continue to benefit from Trump‑era tax cuts that were never reversed. In fact, this year additional breaks were quietly added even as working people were told there was no money. New York‑based taxpayers and public institutions confront rising costs while the top 1 percent receives more tax relief. Infrastructure projects that support working people, like the Gateway Tunnel project between New York and New Jersey, have been cancelled or frozen, costing thousands of jobs and deepening the economic divide between the rich and everyone else.
New York cannot absorb this assault without retaliation. The only viable path is to tax the rich. Raise taxes on the ultra‑wealthy. Close corporate loopholes that allow profits to vanish while public colleges and universities suffer. Impose a tax on wealth, not just income. Demand that those who benefited most from the federal giveaways pay their fair share to offset the federal cuts.
United University Professions (UUP) and Higher Education Labor United (HELU) are fighting this fight. We demand full and sustained funding for SUNY and CUNY. We demand progressive tax reform in New York so that the state does not pay for Washington’s ideological agenda of contraction. We demand student aid, faculty support, research funding, strong infrastructure and public health care remain the priority, not perks for billionaires.
This is a political crisis. Our federal government has made a choice to serve the few at the expense of the many. We must respond with clarity, with organizing, and with power. We must defend our students, our campuses, our union members, our communities, and the public institutions that make democracy real.
We see what Washington is doing. We know who is paying the price. And we are not going to be silent. The future of public higher education, labor rights, and working families in New York is on the line. The time to act is now.
