A compromise has been floated in the State Senate in an effort to save legislation that would allow SUNY campuses to develop to their full potential. Its prospects in the out-of-session Assembly are uncertain, though they couldn’t be worse than the obstinate “no” that majority Democrats have been giving for the past several weeks.

Under the Senate’s revised plan, campuses could raise tuition by up to 4 percent a year and could offer different tuition levels for different programs. “Differential” tuition increases at the four major SUNY centers, including Buffalo, would be capped at 7 percent a year, with a vote of the SUNY board needed to approve the increases.

The new bill fails to address a key Assembly demand: that aid to SUNY is not reduced by plans to let the campuses keep 100 percent of what they raise in higher tuition levels. The Assembly, which never saw a dollar it did not want to spend or control, wants a “hold harmless” clause to force a guarantee of future aid hikes. That sounds like a position tailor-made for negotiation.

This matter would be a dead letter already were it not for the stubborn and salutary refusal of local Sen. William T. Stachowski to withhold his deciding vote for the state budget unless the SUNY measure is also approved. He should stick to his guns.

This is an important and useful development for SUNY, its students and faculty and for taxpayers, as well. The Assembly’s refusal, allegedly based on a fear of how the change would affect poor students, doesn’t hold water. That issue is dealt with in the legislation, which the Assembly leadership has done nothing to try to modify.

If all else fails, backers of this SUNY-wide measure should retreat to its original incarnation: a bill affecting the University at Buffalo only. Lawmakers could offer that approach— possibly also including the campus at Stony Brook—as a pilot program. That, at least, would preserve the UB 2020 plan, which would unlock the educational and economic potential of the university. UB 2020 is the top legislative priority not only of UB, but of the Western New York business community.

But that’s a fall-back position. For now, Stachowski and the Senate Democrats should continue to push their revised version of the SUNY-wide bill. It’s good for New York, and you never know when that fact will dawn on the Assembly.