CUNY sitting on $80M in federal funds while resisting Mayor Adams’ proposed budget cut

CUNY is sitting on nearly $80 million in unspent federal funding, causing Mayor Adams’ office and the City Council to question the university system’s vehement opposition to a proposed funding reduction in this year’s municipal budget, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.

The $78 million in federal funds, allocated by Congress as part of a pandemic economic stimulus package, is greater than the roughly $41 million cut to CUNY’s operating plan that Adams floated in his executive budget proposal for the 2024 fiscal year, the sources said.

The Independent Budget Office’s funding tracker confirms that the federal funds remain unspent.

Nonetheless, CUNY leaders have as part of this year’s budget negotiations resisted Adams’ proposed trim, warning it would deal a serious blow to the university’s operations.

According to sources involved in the budget negotiations, CUNY has not spelled out a plan for how it will spend the federal funds — which must be used this year by law or be returned to the federal government.

Council Democrats led by Speaker Adrienne Adams have opposed the mayor’s proposed CUNY cuts, which he’s seeking as part of a broader belt-tightening effort across city government aimed at reining in spending at a time of economic uncertainty.

But a Council official said it’s tough for the Council to push for reversing all of the mayor’s CUNY cuts while the university’s $78 million federal cushion remains untouched.

“How can we justify restoring cuts here when there are other agencies sitting on $0 in federal funds?” the official told the Daily News, mentioning the city’s three public library systems as an example of an entity facing multi-million dollar cuts without federal funding to lean back on.

A spokeswoman for CUNY disputed that the federal funding would help offset Adams’ proposed cuts because she said the money’s being used to cover revenue plunges due to declining enrollment.

“The remainder of the one-time federal stimulus funds that CUNY received are being used to cover tuition revenue losses stemming from pandemic-related enrollment declines across CUNY colleges,” the spokeswoman said.

“And that doesn’t even start to address long-standing budget deficits in CUNY campuses, especially in our community colleges.”

A spokesman for Mayor Adams did not immediately return a request for comment.

The full span of the mayor’s proposed CUNY budget reduction goes beyond the $41 million cut.

His Programs to Eliminate the Gap, or PEGs, have reduced spending across the university system by $155 million this fiscal year, resulting in the elimination of 235 faculty and staff positions, according to an analysis by City Comptroller Brad Lander’s office.

In addition, the $41 million cut pushed by the mayor’s executive budget would be reoccurring over the next three fiscal years, meaning the total reduction over that time would be $123 million.

Word that the mayor’s and the Council are both questioning CUNY’s handling of its federal allocation comes at a critical time.

The 2024 fiscal year budget is due by this Saturday, and the two sides still seem to be far apart on a large number of issues.

The mayor has consistently argued that the costly migrant crisis and national economic headwinds necessitate spending cuts at nearly all city agencies. The Council, by contrast, says his austerity push is too extreme and that the city can afford to both care for migrants and maintain current spending levels at agencies.

With Cayla Bamberger