April 15, 2008

It's actually worse than we thought in our report the other day about earmarks in the state budget to establish new law schools at SUNY Stony Brook and at St. John Fisher College near Rochester. "State politicians have guaranteed $3 million to fund initial design and planning stages of a proposed Binghamton University [SUNY Binghamton] law school, Sen. Tom Libous announced Wednesday," according to the student newspaper at the state-run school, which reported the legislative sponsors' fairly shameless rationale: "the proposal would benefit BU's reputation and offer economic development. ...[quoting Libous:] 'It will provide a very significant long-term economic benefit to the Southern Tier.'"