SUNY Chancellor King and SUNY Board of Trustees Statement on Governor Hochul’s FY2026-27 Executive Budget
January 20, 2026
"Governor Hochul's Executive Budget builds on her commitment to public higher education and New York's long-term prosperity. We are grateful to Governor Hochul for another historic year of investments in SUNY's affordable excellence, research leadership, and role as an engine of upward mobility.
"Key highlights of Governor Hochul's Executive Budget for SUNY include:
- Maintaining the SUNY tuition freeze by increasing State-operated campus operating funding by $54 million;
- Maintaining the Community College 100 percent Funding Floor to prevent SUNY Community Colleges from losing nearly $65 million in State funding;
- Investing nearly $8.5 million to expand SUNY Reconnect to provide free community college to eligible adult learners preparing for careers in logistics, air traffic control and transportation, and emergency management, as well as to make it easier for adult learners to return to college to pursue nursing if they already have a prior degree;
- Investing an additional $8 million in ASAP|ACE to bring the nation-leading retention and completion program to a total of 10,000 SUNY students by Fall 2026;
- Doubling the Empire State Service Corps to provide paid community service opportunities to 1,000 SUNY students;
- Investing in additional paid, career-connected internships as SUNY works to meet its ambitious goal of an internship or other experiential learning opportunity for every undergraduate student;
- Providing $595 million in critical maintenance capital funding to help address SUNY's $10 billion critical maintenance backlog, an increase over the traditional $550.0 million; and
- Supporting SUNY's hospitals, including $100 million in operating aid for SUNY Downstate Hospital while the Governor's $1.1 billion capital investment for modernizing the hospital is implemented, along with $50 million in capital funding for each of SUNY's three hospitals.
"Through the strong support of Governor Hochul and our State Legislature, SUNY is able to meet this moment as we prepare the next generation of New York leaders, and we look forward to working together throughout the budget process to ensure SUNY has the resources our students need to succeed."
About the State University of New York
The State University of New York is the largest comprehensive system of higher education in the United States, and more than 95 percent of all New Yorkers live within 30 miles of any one of SUNY’s 64 colleges and universities. Across the system, SUNY has four academic health centers, five hospitals, four medical schools, two dental schools, a law school, the country’s oldest school of maritime, the state's only college of optometry, 12 Educational Opportunity Centers, over 30 ATTAIN digital literacy labs, and manages one US Department of Energy National Laboratory. In total, SUNY serves about 1.7 million students across its portfolio of credit- and non-credit-bearing courses and programs, continuing education, and community outreach programs. SUNY oversees nearly a quarter of academic research in New York. Research expenditures system-wide are nearly $1.5 billion in fiscal year 2025, including significant contributions from students and faculty. There are more than three million SUNY alumni worldwide, and annually one in three New Yorkers who earn a college degree is a SUNY alum. To learn more about how SUNY creates opportunities, visit suny.edu.
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Holly Liapis
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