A Fargo legislator is promoting a college tuition freeze for two years, but students worry it could backfire.

Rep. Scot Kelsh has introduced a bill that would hold tuition at North Dakota's 11 public colleges at current levels for the 2007-08 and 2008-09 school years. It includes $20 million to offset the tuition revenue the state's university system would lose because of the freeze.

Since 1980, "if the price of gas had kept up with the pace of tuition increases, we'd be paying $9 a gallon today," Kelsh, a Democrat, said at a North Dakota House Appropriations subcommittee hearing on Tuesday.

Adam Little, a North Dakota Student Association spokesman, suggested that a two-year freeze could create pressure for larger tuition increases later.

Instead, North Dakota's 11 public colleges should limit tuition increases to 3 percent for each of the next two years, rather than the 5 percent ceiling being considered by the Board of Higher Education, Little said.

A portion of the $20 million in Kelsh's bill would make up lost tuition income, and the remainder could be used to increase the university system's permanent budget, he said.

"Tuition freezes sound awesome, and I assure you that every student would accept that with open arms. But I encourage you to use that money in a different way," Little said. "This will provide a more long-term solution."

Students are more accepting of tuition increases that cover inflationary cost increases, Little said. What they find more difficult to swallow are the double-digit spikes that have been common in recent years, he said.

Eddie Dunn, chancellor of the state university system, said the Board of Higher Education supported "thoughtful measures that will limit tuition rates for students."

The students' proposal for a 3 percent cap and an increase in the permanent budgets of North Dakota's colleges, is "impressive," Dunn said.

Little, of Bottineau, who is a senior at North Dakota State University, is supporting the university system's efforts to rejigger Gov. John Hoeven's budget recommendations to put more money into the permanent budgets of North Dakota's colleges.

The state Board of Higher Education asked Hoeven to recommend a $63 million spending rise for North Dakota's 11 public colleges for the next two years. In exchange, board members said, they would limit tuition increases to 5 percent for each of the next two years.

The governor's budget package included the increase, but set aside about $11 million as money for one-time projects. University system advocates want that sum shifted to the colleges' permanent budgets, rather than counted as money that may not be available to them in the future.

Little said the permanent money is especially important to maintain ConnectND, a new administrative computer software system that has caused problems for the state's colleges.

"This would allow the system to hire on the permanent positions it needs to fix the system, and to help it operate at peak efficiency," he said. "One-time funding only allows them to hire out one-time consultants at exorbitant prices."

The bill is HB1521.