Legislator: Finalized Tuition Plan Near

Budget writers were putting the finishing touches Tuesday afternoon on a continuing budget resolution that would finalize the tuition increase and fully fund the University's enrollment increase.

Two months into the fiscal year, state lawmakers have yet to put together a budget and have passed several continuing resolutions to keep state agencies operational.

The most recent continuing resolution expires a week from today.

Sen. Howard Lee, D-Orange, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, said Tuesday that lawmakers were finishing up work on the next resolution, which could extend into mid-September.

The proposed resolution not only will allow the state government to continue to operate, but it will also include a 9 percent across-the-board tuition increase and more than $30 million in funding for increased enrollment and development of distance-education programs in the UNC system.

The 9 percent tuition increase would raise in-state undergraduate tuition at UNC-Chapel Hill by about $200 and out-of-state tuition by about $1,000.

Those increases will be retroactively charged to students for the fall 2001 semester.

Lee said the resolution could clear the Senate as early as today and could reach the House floor either Thursday or early next week.

But Lee said lawmakers were two to three weeks away from coming to an agreement on the state budget due to persistent disagreements about various tax increase proposals.

"We have yet to reach any sort of agreement on how we can increase revenue," Lee said. "We are at least two weeks away from completing the budget process."

Senate Democrats have proposed a plan that would raise the state sales tax by one cent, which would generate $850 million in additional revenue, while House Democrats have called for a combination of tax proposals that would generate $450 million in additional revenue.

Neither plan has enough votes to pass the closely divided House where the Democrats have just a 4-seat majority, especially because the Republicans are staunchly opposed to any tax increase proposal.

The amount of revenue raised from any tax increase that is approved could impact how much the UNC system's funding will be cut during the ongoing budget negotiations.

So far, the UNC system has been largely spared from cuts, but that could change as legislators continue to build a budget.

Judith Pulley, the UNC-system's vice president of academic planning, said she is relieved that the legislature will likely decide to fully fund the UNC-system's enrollment increase but said she is still concerned about possible cuts to the recurring budget.

"It's very good news that the General Assembly has decided to fund our enrollment increase," Pulley said.

"But they could still cut out the legs of our University if they cut our base funding."

The State & National Editor can be reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.