Penn State will receive a $12 million cut in state funding next year after Gov. Mark Schweiker signed into law a $20.7 billion state budget Saturday.

The budget will go into effect today.

The state House of Representatives voted last month to restore some of the money Schweiker had cut in his original budget proposal. The state Senate did not restore or cut any additional funding when it passed the appropriations bill last week.

Undergraduate Student Government President Rubina Javeri expressed disappointment that the state ultimately cut the university's funding. She said the lobbying work USG and the Council of Commonwealth Student Governments did last year prevented a larger cut, and therefore a higher potential tuition increase from occurring. USG will continue to work, in the hopes of minimizing another large tuition increase next year, she said.

"There's going to be a lot of aggressive legwork going on from our organization to make sure that doesn't happen again," she said.

USG Vice President Kris Ankarlo added that the student government's relationships with state government members have brought some benefits to the university.

"I think one thing to take note of is a lot of the representatives who we established good relationships with last year were standing up in committee trying to get Penn State more money," Ankarlo said. "They ended up reciprocating."

A report released in April by the university's Tuition Task Force predicted tuition could increase between 7.8 and 14.7 percent.

Ankarlo said a potential 10 percent tuition increase is somewhat of an improvement from talk in recent months of a 14 percent increase.

"I'm not saying 10 percent is a good thing," he said. "It's a horrible thing."

Javeri and Ankarlo will speak at the Board of Trustees meeting on July 11 and 12 when the board sets tuition rates for next year, and in the meantime will stay in contact with the new student trustee, Nicole Lobaugh.

Bill Mahon, Penn State spokesman, said this is the second year in a row the state has cut the university's funding. At the same time, increasing expenses due to several initiatives, including adding graduate student health insurance, campus security and sprinklers have put Penn State in a difficult financial position.

"Penn State students and families will have to pay more for the cost of an education," Mahon said.

Mahon said tuition and appropriations are the two main sources of funding for educating students. If one decreases, the other will increase to make up the difference.

"If you maintain quality that's been at Penn State, you have to pay for it," he said.

He added that Penn State has been known as an efficient university, because it operates on fewer resources than comparable schools.

"We've tightened our belt for years and years. We'll go back and tighten it again. We'll make cuts again," he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.