The Senate boosted college tuition by 3 percent and doled out a one-time, $400 million cut to state universities as part of the allocations that began trickling out of the Senate on Tuesday.
Tuition for workforce education would also increase by 3 percent.
Universities would be allowed to increase tuition by 15 percent under the state’s differential tuition policy, but while that hike is assumed in the Senate’s budget, it isn’t mandatory.
The $400 million cut to general revenue is a one-time reduction in nonrecurring revenue that would likely be restored next year, according to Higher Education Budget Subcommittee Chairwoman Evelyn Lynn, R-Ormond Beach.
Lynn said universities could probably absorb the cut.
“I’m being told that they have a lot of money that they have been trying to save for bad times, and perhaps they can use that this year,” she said.
