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Partisan struggle clouds university funding By PETER WONG SALEM -- Oregon's public universities, in line for their first substantial increase in a decade, may be caught in a budget showdown between Republican legislative leaders and Democratic Gov. John Kitzhaber. The stage for that potential confrontation was set Tuesday, when the Legislature's joint budget committee approved more money than Kitzhaber requested for higher education in the next two years. The budget went to the House on a 16-2 vote. "I feel we may become the shuttlecock in the legislative equivalent of badminton," said Grattan Kerans, a legislator for 17 years before he became director of government relations for the university system in 1993. "If the governor vetoes the budget, it happens. We do not have any control over it. But we are satisfied that everybody is in support of the principles involved in our new budget, which the governor structured and our board has delivered." The $630 million general-fund budget continues a freeze on undergraduate tuition for two more years, lets the seven campuses keep tuition generated by their students, links state aid to their enrollments and restores some of their program cuts in the past decade. Kitzhaber asked for $76 million beyond what is needed to maintain programs. The legislative budget, which cleared a subcommittee last week, adds more than $15 million to his request. "It is the amount necessary for higher education to do the job we have asked it to do," said Senate President Brady Adams, R-Grants Pass, who sought to boost university spending by $100 million beyond what is needed to maintain programs. "I hope that the governor would take a close look at this budget because it is doing what he himself has suggested. He has had a hard time saying `legislature' without saying `veto' afterward. But this is the right thing to do and the right time to do it." Among those voting for the budget in committee Tuesday was Sen. Lenn Hannon, R-Ashland, who toned down the potential of a showdown. "I believe this budget keeps the promise we made last session that if higher education went to this new budget format, we would provide the resources to implement it," Hannon said. "I understand the governor's reluctance, but I support higher education." Kitzhaber has been calling on Republican legislative leaders to unveil their own plans to balance the state budget and boost aid to local school districts without new sources of money. The Senate has gone on record against his proposal to retain surplus personal income taxes and raise corporate income taxes to produce $300 million more for schools. A House committee killed the corporate tax increase. Kitzhaber was out of state Tuesday, and last week, he and aides toned down the threat of a veto of the higher education budget."But we are seeing the Legislature send me (budget) bills that increase spending beyond my recommended levels," he told reporters last week. "If they increase, say, another $20 million for higher education, that money is going to come out of somewhere. That does make me nervous." The system's budget from all sources for the next two years is $2.35 billion, which includes tuition, federal and private grants, and charges for services such as dormitories. Another $100 million from the tax-supported general fund is in a separate budget, not yet approved, for the Oregon State University Extension Service, agricultural experiment stations and forest research laboratory. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA