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Higher ed becomes political football Funding is bargaining chip in broader budget debate By PETER WONG SALEM -- Oregon's public universities are likely to get their biggest-in-a-decade increase, which Gov. John Kitzhaber has endorsed and both houses of the Legislature have approved. But the fate of the higher education budget awaits the outcome of negotiations between the Democratic chief executive and legislative leaders of both parties over the entire state budget. Kitzhaber has threatened to veto the higher education budget, even though he himself has asked for $73 million beyond what is needed to maintain services on the seven campuses for the next two years. Republicans added $15 million on top of his request but have not shown him an overall budget-balancing plan of their own. Kitzhaber's latest budget revision, which he unveiled last week, identifies where he would find the extra money. Increased federal reimbursement for nursing home services would enable him to shift money from the tax-supported general fund to higher education. "So I am willing to engage in a process that gets us there," he told reporters. Senate President Brady Adams, R-Grants Pass, has led the movement to add to the higher education budget. He said the leaders are willing to hold the budget, even though both houses have completed action on it, so that Kitzhaber is not compelled to sign or veto it within five session days. "It sounds that he is not as adamant about vetoing this bill," Adams said. The budget freezes undergraduate tuition for Oregon residents for another two years. It lets each campus keep tuition generated by students, links future state aid with their student enrollments, and restores some of the program cuts they made in the past decade. The new budget model also requires the system to track student progress, such as graduation rates, and measure performance. For Southern Oregon University, the budget would continue tuition at $1,015 per term and boost spending next school year by slightly more than the 4.3 percent in Kitzhaber's original budget. Grattan Kerans, a former legislator who is director of government relations for the university system, said the budget outlook appears good but the legislative session is not yet over. State aid to universities has declined, not only in relation to other sources of income but also in total, during the 1990s as the Legislature diverted more money to offset property tax losses of Oregon's 198 school districts. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA