LJWorld.com / Budget talks hit impasse on immigrant tuition proposal

Archive for Tuesday, May 4, 2004

By John Hanna - Associated Press Writer

May 4, 2004

Topeka — Budget negotiators remained deadlocked Monday over a proposal to grant illegal immigrants a one-year break on tuition at public colleges and universities.

The impasse threatens to stall resolution of a bill tying up loose ends in a $10.3 billion budget already approved for the fiscal year beginning July 1. The tuition proposal is a key issue in House-Senate negotiations, which resumed Monday, the fifth day of the Legislature's wrap-up session.

The proposal would grant in-state tuition to illegal immigrants who had attended a Kansas high school at least three years and graduated or earned a general educational development degree in Kansas.

To receive the cheaper tuition, an immigrant would have to be actively seeking legal immigration status or plan to do so as soon as he or she were eligible.

House members had inserted the proposal into their chamber's version of the budget cleanup bill, although including it in a spending measure means it would only be in effect for one year.

The Senate in February approved a version of the tuition proposal as a separate bill, but House Speaker Doug Mays blocked consideration of the Senate measure in his chamber.

Rep. Melvin Neufeld, the chief House budget negotiator, opposes the tuition proposal and said Saturday that he would not sign any budget compromise that includes it.

Neufeld, R-Ingalls, said in an interview that he objects to "subsidies for foreign students at the expense of Kansas residents."

In-state tuition can be substantially lower than the rates charged to nonresidents. At Kansas State University, for example, undergraduates from Kansas taking 15 credit hours paid $1,755 in tuition for the current semester, compared to $5,700 for undergraduates from other states.

Proponents of the tuition proposal argue that the immigrants affected have lived in Kansas for years and consider themselves Americans.

Sen. Christine Downey, D-Newton, one of the negotiators, said she would not sign any budget compromise without the tuition proposal.

"It's about opportunity, and it's about rejecting prejudice," she said.

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Budget cleanup is House Sub for SB 536.