Kulongoski Reverses Legislature's Limit on Tuition Hikes

This is big. From today's Oregonian:

Gov. Ted Kulongoski plans to veto the Legislature's last-minute whack of the state's public universities to avoid double-digit tuition hikes.

The governor will announce his plans before the State Board of Higher Education meets today to set tuition rates, likely preventing a showdown between the Legislature and the board over the increases.

This is a reversal of the legislature's 11th-hour $11.5 million cut to higher ed just before the end of this year's session. All of this has direct bearing on our negotiations with the university.

With the governor's line-item veto expected, university officials now plan to limit increases to 9 percent at the three large universities and 6.5 percent at most small universities, following the Legislature's limits.

Tuition increases will partially make up for a cut of nearly 10 percent from the university system's $893.2 million 2007-09 budget. To get to the $807.5 million budget for 2009-11, the universities also plan to cut pay, jobs, classes and campus services.

I'll watch this closely and see what develops in the next few days.