http://www.djournal.com/pages/story.asp?ID=217552&pub=1&div=News

Legislators lament tuition boosts

...Tom Meredith, commissioner of higher education, explained that most of the $100 million increase in funding received this year is being consumed by salaries and increases in health insurance and retirement benefits.


The salary boost will be the first in six years for university faculty and staff. After those items the Legislature designated to be appropriated are dealt with, very little money is left to pay for dramatic increases in utility and fuel costs, Meredith said....

...Nunnelee also complained that on the same day Gov. Haley Barbour signed into law a record increase in funding, College Board officials "started talking about a tuition increase. The timing was horrible."


Rep. Jack Gadd, D-Hickory Flat, who handles the universities budget in the House, said tuition is "already too high, but I don't tell the College Board what to do. Most of the money we gave them is tied up in salaries. They need operational money....