Pa. Table Games Stalemate Bumps Into Tuition Bills

An entrenched stalemate in the Capitol may mean students at major Pennsylvania universities will soon see higher second-semester tuition bills.

The latest meeting Wednesday between Gov. Ed Rendell and state legislative leaders to resolve remaining budget-related differences broke up without an agreement, leaving subsidies for several universities in limbo.

Three universities — Temple, Pitt and Penn State — that are in line to receive a combined $675 million expect to post second-semester tuition bills as early as next week for more than 150,000 students.

But tuition bills could rise if the Legislature does not provide more assurance soon that the schools' money is on its way, officials said.

"We're not in crisis, but we do need to know where we stand pretty soon because we're going to be sending out the tuition bills for the spring semester" on Nov. 13, said University of Pittsburgh spokesman Robert Hill.

Stalling the schools' money in Harrisburg is a disagreement among top legislators over details of a bill to legalize and tax table games such as poker at the state's slot-machine casinos.

Last month's budget agreement between the Democratic governor and legislative leaders assumed the approval of a table games bill to raise $200 million for the cash-strapped state government. Until a bill is approved, Rendell and House Democrats are holding up discretionary taxpayer dollars slated for Penn State, Pitt, Temple and other institutions because, he said, it would create a deficit next year.

The Senate's Republican majority and the House's Democratic majority still disagree on key parts of the bill.

Those include how high to set the tax rate on the casinos' take from table games and whether to allow more slot machines at the state's miniature "resort" casinos, as House Democrats want.

Last month, the presidents of Temple, Pitt, Lincoln and Penn State wrote a letter to top state officials warning that the holdup could force them to increase second-semester tuition.