Budget moves to floor

The House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday voted to send Gov. John Engler's fiscal year 2000 budget recommendation to the full House floor, where it could be debated as early as today.

With all the committee's Republicans and one Democrat voicing support for the bill, the committee passed the bill with an 18 to 9 majority.

Although many amendments were proposed during the committee's two Tuesday sessions, most did not made the cut for the final proposal.

"A few changes were made here and there, but nothing dramatic," said Cynthia Wilbanks, the University's vice president for government relations.

Rep. Jon Jellema (R-Grand Haven) said one amendment that was supported involved funds designated for a tuition-restraint program proposed by Gov. John Engler in February.

The original proposal would give universities that keep tuition increases below 3 percent next year an extra 1.5 percent increase - which would translate into about a $5 million bonus for the University.

The modified proposal would reroute unclaimed money from the tuition-restraint funds into another portion of the bill.

"This 1.5 percent would go into a pot and that money would go to the universities that are still lagging," said Jellema, the committee's vice chair.

Universities that receive less per-student funding than their peer institutions would benefit even more from this amendment. The budget proposal groups the state's 15 public universities into four tiers and assigns minimum funding floors to each tier.

This aspect of the proposal has not been modified, although many committee Democrats - and University President Lee Bollinger - have expressed disapproval of this new funding method.

The University would not receive any of the money set aside for the tier formula because it is already funded above the minimum floor.

Seeing the original four-tier proposal reach the House floor concerns committee member Rep. A.T. Frank (D-Saginaw Twp.), who said he hopes the Legislature's upper chamber will modify the tier formula if it passes the full House still intact.

"I just wish the majority party would have listened to President Bollinger," Frank said. "I'm looking forward to seeing what the Senate will bring out."

Rep. Terry Geiger (R-Lake Odessa), who chairs the Appropriations committee, said the tier method is not perfect, but the proposal is "a great start" and addresses the needs of Michigan's universities.

Geiger said the overall 4 percent increase proposed for higher education spending is sufficient relative to previous expenditures.

"We are able to support our universities at far above the rate of inflation, and that's what I look at," Geiger said.

Inflation also factors into the state's tuition tax credit program. Engler's budget requested the repeal of the tax credit.

Frank, who was an author of the original tax credit bill, introduced a bill Tuesday that would allow all students to qualify for the tax credit. The current program excludes students who attend a university that increases tuition by more than the rate of inflation.

University students, for instance, did not qualify this year, due to the 3.7 percent tuition increase passed by the University Board of Regents.

With inflation hovering at 1.6 percent, universities have been unable to make their tuition increases match that figure. Bollinger has said a 4 to 5 percent tuition increase is possible this fall if the budget proposal is not drastically changed.

"Parents don't have control over what the universities do," Frank said. But "the governor doesn't have the support to repeal the tuition tax credit."

Frank said he doesn't expect his proposal to be widely supported by the Republican-controlled Legislature.

"This bill probably wouldn't even see the light of day," Frank said. "The majority has not seen fit to make education a top priority."

03-25-99