A state representative proposed cutting the UA budget Tuesday by 4 percent for the next fiscal year, a figure significantly higher than an earlier recommendation from the governor.

Republican Rep. Laura Knaperek, chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee, issued a proposal that would cut the UA budget beginning in July, remove $25 million in funding for tobacco research and education, and allocate less money for UA than expected to hire staff and faculty to support growing enrollment.

UA administrators were hoping for $7.3 million in funding for what appears to be the largest-ever incoming freshman class this fall, said Budget Director Dick Roberts.

Normally, the state provides funding for one new professor and staff member each time enrollment grows by 22 students, but this year, the Legislature is reconsidering how much money the state will provide to hire each additional professor.

Last fall, a record 6,100 freshmen came to UA. A legislative committee proposed giving the university $5.9 million, but Knaperek's proposal would bring that amount to about $4.7 million.

The proposal is only one of two preliminary proposals lawmakers are considering right now, and there are no bills on the table at this point. Gov. Jane Dee Hull released a proposal last month that would cut next year's UA budget by about 2.25 percent.

"This is a long way from being over," said Greg Fahey, UA associate vice president for government relations.

If lawmakers approve funding cuts as currently planned, UA will have lost approximately $67 million between 2002 and 2003.

These losses come in the form of budget cuts and exclude funding for larger salary increases, facilities maintenance, travel and faculty retention, according to information from Roberts and UA President Peter Likins.

Roberts expects to lose more than $95 million in state funding between 2002 and 2003, due partly to $27 million to fund building upkeep that Hull vetoed. Some of the $95 million, however, was never signed into law and was an optimistic goal from the outset.

When the biennial budget for 2002 and 2003 was originally approved last April, legislators planned to fund even more university projects, most of which have since been cut.

The amount of state funding UA hoped for in 2002 and 2003 came to more than $712 million to operate main campus and extensions, like the Arizona Health Sciences Center.

Several million dollars of the tobacco fund that now supports research and smoker education at the College of Public Health would be pulled if the proposal were to take effect, Fahey said.

And raising tuition is not the solution Likins hopes for, because tuition increases would need to be unrealistically steep to outpace cuts from the Legislature, Roberts said.

Hypothetically, in-state and out-of-state tuition averaged together would have to be increased by more than 50 percent if UA were to attempt to generate $67 million by raising tuition.

"We don't believe we should have to raise tuition to offset funding cuts, and we don't want to do that," Roberts said.

Knaperek's proposal also contains a provision that would send half of the state funding for a UA job back to Phoenix whenever UA employee quit his or her position. Hull has vetoed this provision before, but if it were to become part of the 2003 state budget, UA could lose $3.5 to $4 million as a result, Roberts said.