Pawlenty warm to tuition freeze

(AP) While applauding proposals from public universities to keep tuition increases in the 4-percent neighborhood in coming years, Gov. Tim Pawlenty said Thursday he'd back a tuition freeze if the Legislature passes one.

Pawlenty expressed his support for such a move during a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press, Minnesota Public Radio and WCCO-AM. He also revealed plans to seek authority to hire a state coordinator for security during the 2008 Republican National Convention.

The prospect of a tuition-freeze plan reaching Pawlenty's desk is hard to gauge. House Minority Leader Marty Seifert, R-Marshall, said his caucus will push it. But Democrats, who will run both chambers of the Legislature, haven't announced their own higher education goals.

The University of Minnesota and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system are both seeking tens of millions of additional state appropriations from lawmakers, who must set a two-year budget in 2007. The university said it would limit tuition hikes to 4.5 percent a year if its full budget request is granted and MnSCU hopes to cap increases on student tuition at 4 percent.

Pawlenty said the tuition increases "are much more reasonable level of increases than we've seen in the last decade or so."

Asked if he'd go along with a proposal requiring tuition to be held steady, Pawlenty said: "I certainly would support a freeze if the Legislature decided to go in that direction."

Lawmakers have the power to order MnSCU to flatten tuition but can only recommend the University of Minnesota do so. The university has special autonomy in the state Constitution.

Last week, a university official said the four-campus school would need $46 million above a $123.4 million request for new money to have no tuition increase in the next two years.

This year's undergraduate resident tuition and fees at the university ranges from $7,568 at the Crookston campus to $10,207 in Morris. Duluth and Twin Cities both charge in the low $9,000s.

Student costs are more varied at MnSCU's 32 institutions, but average $4,500 at four-year universities.

Linda Kohl, associate vice chancellor for public affairs, said an extra $73 million for two years on top of a $177 million budget request would enable MnSCU to freeze tuition.

Seifert said he hears regularly from constituents that tuition has climbed too fast, especially for middle-class families that have trouble qualifying for grant programs.

"Our plan will help the average student catch up to the skyrocketing costs of tuition they have encountered in earning a college degree," he said.

The plan, he said, would redirect money from other areas of the college funding requests to pay for the freeze. He doesn't foresee tapping into a budget surplus expected to exceed $2 billion.

Kohl said shifting funds would make it harder to deliver on technology and nursing program upgrades in MnSCU's overall proposal.

House Majority Leader Tony Sertich, DFL-Chisholm, wouldn't rule out a freeze, but said Democrats would be looking for a more lasting fix. "Students going to college, go to college for four years. They need help their whole experience," he said.

Rep. Tom Rukavina, DFL-Virginia, who will lead the House higher education committee, generally supported the freeze. "Kids are graduating with a house mortgage, for God's sakes," Rukavina said. "Something needs to be done."

However, Rukavina wanted to know where they money would come from. He said he wouldn't support siphoning money away from other government programs, which have taken cuts in recent years.

On a separate topic, Pawlenty shed light on planning under way for the Republican nominating convention the Twin Cities was selected to host in two years.

He said he will ask the 2007 Legislature to approve a security coordinator. The main events will be held at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, but Minneapolis will host functions as well.

"Job one in the whole thing is making sure the whole thing is safe and secure," he said.

Federal agencies will be heavily involved in protecting delegates, dignitaries and other visitors. But state and local authorities will also play a big role, creating the need for an official to oversee it all.

"It can't just be a St. Paul thing. You are going to have to involve county sheriffs departments, the State Patrol, the National Guard," Pawlenty said. "There needs to be a plan."

Pawlenty said he won't seek a state subsidy for direct convention activities.