TALLAHASSEE, Fla.
Legislation that would raise community college and state-university tuition by 5 percent in January also includes automatic increases in future years tied to inflation, as well as a technology fee for universities.
The tuition provisions are part of a budget-cutting package distributed to lawmakers Tuesday, after conference committees and appropriations leaders settled differences between the two chambers.
The House and Senate each included the January increase in a package of spending cuts affecting nearly all parts of the state’s annual budget to offset a $1.1 billion shortfall in tax revenue.
Negotiators from the two chambers then agreed to accept the Senate’s technology fee and the House’s inflation escalator. Lawmakers will vote on the budget-cutting package Friday, after a required 72-hour cooling-off period.
Linking tuition to increases in the Consumer Price Index will give universities and community colleges predictability instead of having to wait for the Legislature to make a decision every year, said House Policy and Budget Chairman Ray Sansom, R-Destin.
“It doesn’t make it where it’s, ‘Do we or don’t we?’ until the end of the session,” Sansom said. “It’s automatically there.”
