NYSHEI News

Governor Eliot Spitzer’s 2008-09 Executive Budget Proposal called for a 5.2 percent increase in state spending – a move that many labeled “belt-tightening.”

Since that initial proposal more economic data has come in and Legislative conferences have releases their revenue projections for the year. At issue is the amount of money available to spend. The impact on the state budget negotiations is self-evident.

Here are the conference revenue projections.

The Assembly Majority Democrats project an excess of $52 million in 2007-08 and a shortfall of $667 million for 2008-09 for a net decrease of $615 million – an argument for budget cuts or increased debt.

The Assembly Minority Republicans (a group with virtually no impact on the budget talks) projecs a shortfall of $113.8 million for 2007-08 and a shortfall of $201.5 million for 2008-09 for a net decrease of $315 million – another argument for budget cuts.

The Senate Majority Republicans project an excess of $95 million for 2007-08 and an excess of $4 million for 2008-09 for a net increase in state revenue of $99 million, and an effort to increase state spending – beyond Spitzer’s proposal – to a level roughly three times the rate of inflation.

The Senate Minority Democrats are closely aligned with the Governor and are expected to echo his forecasts.

All of this information is open to interpretation but does seem to point to a protracted and unusual budget battle, with Democrats hopes of seizing control of the Senate guiding most decisions.

On February 15, 2008 leaders of the Library Association of the City of New York met with NYSHEI Executive Director Jason Kramer to learn about NYSHEI advocacy and discuss greater cooperation between the organizations.

“Lisa Ellis and the LACUNY leadership are great supporters of NYSHEI. I am grateful for the opportunity to address LACUNY campus representatives and look forward to working together to spur the success of ARIA for CUNY and all NYSHEI member institutions,” said Kramer.

Specifically, Kramer urged LACUNY representatives to encourage their colleagues to join the NYSHEI Supporters list and participate in upcoming NYSHEI activities, such as the May 1, Library Connect event and the June 2, Annual Meeting.

On February 12, 2008 NYSHEI Executive Director Jason Kramer was invited to speak to members of the Elsevier sales, marketing and executive teams.

Gathered at the Le Parker Meridien Hotel in midtown Manhattan for their annual North American Sales Kick-Off meetings, Elsevier invited Kramer to discuss NYSHEI and its advocacy on behalf of public and private academic and research libraries.

“NYSHEI libraries are engaged in a broad effort to demonstrate and articulate the relevance of academic and research libraries to the political and policy-making circles of New York. Connecting libraries with that off-campus world is critical to our advocacy goals and will set a foundation upon which we can build greater on-campus awareness efforts,” said Kramer.

“To do this we must repackage libraries as a means to an end. For instance, if Governor Spitzer wants to build an innovation economy, he must know that academic and research libraries can lead the way. If top faculty are to be recruited to campuses, academic and research libraries must be seen as part of the enticement and critical a researcher with career ambitions,” said Kramer.

Kramer set forth three essential items and challenged Elsevier to affirmatively partner with organizations like NYSHEI in achieving those aims.

“First, libraries must cultivate the need for, not what they are, but what they do. Faculty must view libraries as a partner, administrators must view libraries as an essential commodity, and business and political leaders must view libraries as ‘infrastructure.’

Second, libraries must document their service. Metrics and anecdotes must be derived that illustrate persuasively the real-world impact of research libraries.

Finally, libraries must trumpet their value, endlessly, to all available audiences,” said Kramer.

On Tuesday, February 12, 2008, the NYS Assembly Committee on Economic Development, Small Business, Commerce and Industry voted unanimously to report ARIA (A.9672/S.6741) from committee. Translation: When put to its first vote, ARIA passed with broad bi-partisan support.

Assemblyman Robin Schimminger (D-Kenmore) chair of the committee and lead Assembly sponsor of ARIA has adopted the NYSHEI proposal among his top priorities for invigorating the state economy.

“This is a good bill, a good idea and we need to make sure it happens,” said Schimminger.

From the Economic Development Committee, ARIA has been sent to the Assembly Ways and Means Committee. Here it will await a vote. ARIA will now also begin to get more attention from other groups as well as legislative fiscal staff who are being urged to include the provisions of the bill in their state budget priorities.

Said NYSHEI Executive Director Jason Kramer, “this is a significant accomplishment for ARIA. Less than one month after its introduction, the bill has already advanced through committee. This gives us the advantage of being able to efficiently target advocacy efforts on the fiscal committees. While enacting ARIA remains a long-shot this legislative session, we continue to build momentum, so anything is possible.”

“On behalf of all NYSHEI members I want to thank Chairman Schimminger and Ranking Member [Marc] Butler (R-Hamilton) for supporting ARIA,” continued Kramer.

In the Senate, ARIA skipped over the Economic Development Committee and was initially referred to the Senate Finance Committee.

NYSHEI Executive Director Jason Kramer on February 8, 2008 presented testimony to a hearing of the Assembly Committee on Higher Education. The hearing was led by Committee Chair Assembly Member Deborah Glick (D-Manhattan) at the state offices in Lower Manhattan.

After thanking Glick for her role on the Commission for Higher Education and its endorsement of NYSHEI’s ARIA proposal and for her sponsorship of legislation enacting ARIA, Kramer urged Glick to not underestimate the impact of ARIA on other higher education goals.

“An information infrastructure built upon academic libraries and supported by state investments promises dramatic benefits: better schools; top faculty; empowered job creation engines,” said Kramer.

“With $15 million of annual appropriations New York can leverage the firth of the nations largest state system, the nations largest urban system and the nations largest private system to provide leading science, technology and medical journals to researchers in every corner of the state,” said Kramer.

Assembly Member Glick noted that there are many challenges ahead, but that NYSHEI is making noticeable progress. “Keep it up,” she said “we can get this done.”