This week it was announced that tuition will decrease next year for the majority of Minnesota students attending the University and MNSCU campuses. For students struggling to get by in this economic crisis, this should be welcome news. But they shouldn’t hold their breath. With the help of Republican legislators, Gov. Tim Pawlenty is coming after their tuition.

The Democratic majority in the Legislature recognized that in addressing our greatest recession in a generation, we must support the students who will be the workforce for a generation to come. We rejected the Governor’s initial budget proposal to cut $250 million from higher education because it would have increased tuition by over 10 percent. Instead, we used targeted federal recovery dollars, negotiated in good faith with the University and MnSCU leaders, and expanded grants and scholarships to support middle income students. We were able to hold tuition increases down so that Minnesota students weren’t asked to mortgage their own future to pay for our current deficit.

But while the governor signed our higher education bill into law, he vetoed the revenue bill that paid for it. The revenue bill he vetoed consisted mainly of an income tax increase on the wealthiest Minnesotans. A joint-filer earning $300,000 per year would have paid only $109 per year more in taxes.

The governor will soon use unallotments to make far deeper cuts to resolve the budget gap he created with his veto. According to what his Administration has said about his plans, his cuts could increase tuition by as much as 15-18 percent. That’s going to be a lot more than $109 for most Minnesota students.

In this recession, increasing tuition by double digit percentages is a terrible economic strategy. Our universities and colleges are the research engines of our economy, and our students are the future workers that will propel it for decades. Deep cuts to our colleges weaken the education our students receive, will send students to colleges in other states, and prevent students from affording college in the first place.

What makes this particularly difficult to stomach is the alternative to double-digit tuition increases was on the governor’s desk and he vetoed it. If the governor had signed the Legislature’s balanced budget, 61 percent of in-state Minnesota students would have actually paid less to attend college next year. Instead, with the backing of every Republican in the Legislature, the governor’s veto and unallotment strategy was upheld and endorsed.

The battle over higher education is a great example of the stark difference in priorities between the Democrats and Republicans in the state Legislature this session. Democrats supported a balanced budget that kept college tuition low, preserved basic health care at rural hospitals, and kept funding in place so local property taxes wouldn’t skyrocket. Republicans supported deep cuts to each of these valuable priorities in order to protect wage earners making over $300,000 per year from a $109 tax increase.

Tom Rukavina

representative, DFL

House District 5A

Virginia