Penn State could see a 4-percent increase in state funding, roughly $13 million, under the 2006-07 state budget plan proposed yesterday -- but Penn State officials say the increase is not enough to execute the plan for a tuition freeze at Commonwealth Campuses.

Gov. Ed Rendell's spokeswoman Kate Philips said the budget Rendell proposed in an address to the state Legislature in Harrisburg called for an overall increase of 3.7 percent for higher education in Pennsylvania, which is roughly a $2 billion increase total. Penn State would receive the most funding of the state-related universities at $322.4 million for the 2006-07 fiscal year, she added.

However, university spokesman Tysen Kendig, in a press release, said the increase in state funding falls "significantly short of the funds requested to support a tuition freeze by Penn State at 20 of its undergraduate campuses."

Kendig said the tuition freeze that was approved by Penn State's Board of Trustees in September required a 9.5-percent increase in state funding to go into effect. With only a 4-percent increase, Kendig said, the idea "will need to be abandoned."

Penn State's two main sources of income are state funding and tuition, so to make up for the shortcomings of the funding increase, the university will focus on tightening its internal spending and considering future tuition increases, Kendig said.

"We constantly have increasing expenses such as staff salaries, health benefits and property taxes that we need to pay for," Kendig said. "It is necessary to have a large increase in state funding each year so that we can continue to provide a high quality of education without raising tuition at exorbitant rates."

The funding for this $2 billion increase in appropriations for higher education is coming from high state revenues, Philips said.

"The high revenues that we currently have are a result of improvements to our economy and an investment in the state," she said. "We currently have more people working in Pennsylvania today than ever before in history."

Philips said that Rendell tightened spending through management and productivity programs this year, resulting in an extra $1 billion. In the past, the money had been used to run state government.

Philips said that a 4-percent increase in funding would be issued to Penn State as well as three other state-related universities: the University of Pittsburgh, Temple University and Lincoln University.

Rendell's budget proposal also includes a 5-percent state funding increase for community colleges, a 4.5-percent increase for the state system of higher education and a 3-percent increase for non-state-related colleges and universities, Philips said.

"We have had to cut some areas of our budget, but the governor feels that higher education is a place that we need to invest," she said.

Although the proposal is not final and will be undergoing several reviews and modifications before it is passed, Penn State has already begun planning to work with the state House and Senate to promote additional financial support for the university.

Kendig said Penn State President Graham Spanier will appear before the state House and Senate Appropriation Committees later this month to continue to rally for financial support of Penn State.