When North Dakota's Board of Higher Education drafted its preferred budget for the next two years, members promised a 5 percent limit on annual tuition increases if colleges got the money they wanted.

Gov. John Hoeven's budget plan for the 2007 Legislature largely met the board's money requests. But even if the Legislature goes along, North Dakota colleges will have to cut operating budgets to keep tuition increases at 5 percent, and provide 5 percent annual pay increases to faculty, university system officials say.

"If, in the end, we're going to give faculty and staff an average 5 percent salary increase, that means there are other things that are going to have to go unfunded," said Laura Glatt, the state university system's vice chancellor for administrative affairs.

At a board meeting Thursday, Ellen Chaffee, president of Valley City State University, and Gary Hagen, the interim president of Mayville State University, said their schools may need larger tuition increases, even if the Legislature approves the board's favored budget.

For their schools, the plan does not have enough money to sustain current operations and give college faculty 5 percent raises for the next two years, while capping annual tuition increases at 5 percent, Chaffee and Hagen said.

For Valley City to finance 5 percent pay increases this year and next, tuition would have to rise by 6.4 percent each year, Chaffee said.

If annual tuition increases were kept at 5 percent, "we would have to do significant reallocations" from other areas of the school's budget, Chaffee said.

Hagen said Mayville State's situation was similar, although he said he did not have a specific estimate on the tuition increase that may be needed.

"It doesn't appear that our budget works out, either," Hagen said. "It seems to come short."

Despite the problems, tuition increases at Mayville and Valley City in the next two years are unlikely to exceed 5 percent. The Board of Higher Education sets tuition rates, and members have expressed strong support for the 5 percent limit.

Glatt said all of the university system's 11 colleges were facing similar pressures, although she said it is more pronounced at smaller colleges, such as Mayville and Valley City.

When the board was mulling its budget recommendations last summer, members favored asking for a 21 percent share of North Dakota's general fund spending for the 2007-09 budget period.

To reach that benchmark, budget drafters estimated a $63 million increase was needed, which is a 16 percent rise over current spending.

"Within that, obviously, there were a number of priorities that had to trade off against one another," Glatt said.

Operating expenses ended up shortchanged by board members' desire to limit tuition increases to 5 percent during the next two years, and pressure for 5 percent annual pay increases for university system faculty and staff.