Tax Revenues
  • 1970-1995 graduates pay $646 million in State and City taxes each year.

  • Employees pay another $71 million in State and City sales and income tax.

  • Total tax revenues directly attributable to CUNY: $717 million per year.

University Expenditures

  • $123 million is spent annually for supplies, equipment, and services.

  • $337 million in construction and facilities renovation was put into New York's economy this past year.

  • $526 million is spent by CUNY employees for goods and services annually in the State.

  • More than 90 percent of staff live in New York.

Student and Alumni Expenditures

  • CUNY's students spend about $810 million each year while in college, in addition to tuition; 98 percent live in New York while attending college.

  • 1970-1995 graduates spend $4.3 billion more in New York each year than they would have spent had they not gone to college. Expenditures by all CUNY alumni, including those who graduated before 1970, are far higher; 80 percent still live in New York at least 10 years after graduation.

  • Total student and alumni outlays attributable to CUNY in 1995: $5.1 billion.
Economists, citing the multiplier effect, report that dollars spent by CUNY have nearly twice their impact, the result of the re-spending that occurs following the original expenditure.

Impact on Jobs

The U.S. Department of Commerce estimates that 24.9 jobs are created for each extra million dollars pumped into the New York economy.

  • The CUNY impact, therefore, leads to the creation of an extra 32l,210 jobs. Adding CUNY's own 25,450 employees (of whom about 22,000 live in New York City and 4,000 elsewhere in New York State) means that approximately 346,660 New Yorkers are working and paying taxes because of The City University of New York.

CUNY colleges attract private dollars.

Recent examples include:

  • Miles and Shirley Fiterman: A $30 million 15-story building at 30 West Broadway, largest private gift of a physical facility to a community college in the nation, for Borough of Manhattan Community College.

  • William and Anita Newman: $5 million unrestricted gift to Baruch College; $1 million to establish Steven L. Newman Real Estate Institute at Baruch College.

  • NYNEX: $3.5 million for Project Tell at CUNY Graduate School, a learning-through-computers incentive program for New York City public school students.

  • Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: $3 million to Hunter College to demonstrate approaches for reducing substance abuse among jail inmates.

  • Humana Foundation: $2 million to fund fellowships for minority students pursuing doctorates at the CUNY Graduate School.

  • Kellogg Foundation: $1.5 million for a Center for Philanthropy and Volunteerism at the CUNY Graduate School.

  • DeWitt Wallace Readers Digest Foundation: $1.02 million to LaGuardia Community College and Hunter College for a Middle College High School Consortium.

    • Diamond Foundation: $1 million for the Pipeline Program at the CUNY Graduate School to encourage minority students to pursue careers in college teaching.
Total economic impact of The City University of New York on New York State: $12.9 billion.

A business volume of $12.9 billion is generated by CUNY-attributable expenditures each year. This is more than 10 times the total annual budget for the University, and 18 times the portion provided by State and City aid.

The City University of New York