The North Dakota Legislature has approved a $795 million higher education bill that includes $31 million in financial aid for students but does not guarantee a tuition freeze as some lawmakers had hoped.

The budget includes $19 million in financial aid for needy students, $8 million in so-called "tuition stabilization," $3 million for merit scholarships, and $1 million to forgive loans to science, technology, engineering and math students.

The measure also has at least $35 million in construction projects. It now goes to Gov. John Hoeven.

"This bill isn't perfect," said Sen. Larry Robinson, D-Valley City. "But in many ways, it is hallmark legislation. We are taking a giant step forward in the funding of our university system in North Dakota."

The legislation caps tuition increases at 4 percent and gives the state Board of Higher Education the option of freezing tuition at the state's two-year schools. Some lawmakers said students from North Dakota should be getting a rebate with such a generous budget.

Sen. Tracy Potter, D-Bismarck, said legislators took advantage of a huge budget surplus to cut taxes, but forgot about students.

"We should change the name 'tuition' to the 'college attendance tax.' If we recognized this as a tax, we wouldn't be talking about 4 percent tuition increases," Potter said.

Rep. Mark Dosch, R-Bismarck, complained that the overall budget has increased by 79 percent at a time when only 50 percent of the students are from North Dakota and high school enrollments are declining. Higher education is focused on building an empire rather than controlling spending, he said.

"We're paying them in this budget $8 million so they don't raise tuition by more than 4 percent on our students," Dosch said. "They should be lowering our tuition by 4 percent."

Rep. Kathy Hawken, R-Fargo, said the bill is a good investment because many of the out-of-state students stay in North Dakota.

"While they are here, they have jobs, they pay taxes, they live in houses, they buy things and they add to the economy of our state," Hawken said.

The bill pays for several new construction projects. The major buildings include a $8.8 million library at Dickinson State, a $6 million technology center at Williston State and a $5.4 million family practice center at Bismarck State. It has $11.2 million for improvements to a University of North Dakota education building and $5 million for a Minot State classroom building and health center.

Some late changes were made in the bill to help Valley City State, which has been forced to shut down its campus because of flooding. The university will get about $1.3 million, including $200,000 for immediate marketing and $800,000 to make up for possible enrollment losses. The first check will be for about $317,000, for current losses.

Lawmakers agreed to put $10 million into a fund that pays to keep colleges on equal footing with similar institutions in the region. House and Senate negotiators argued about how that money would be divided up, eventually boosting the minimum payments from $135,000 to $250,000.

That meant less for schools on the higher end, costing North Dakota State University $800,000 and the University of North Dakota $390,000, said Sen. Raymon Holmberg, R-Grand Forks, chairman of the Senate Education Committee.

Five employees in the university system office went from losers to winners in the final version of the bill. House negotiators objected to a two-year salary freeze for the employees who make more than $100,000. The freeze was meant to punish the higher education board for juggling the budget two years ago, but in the end, it was scrapped.

The bill is SB2003.