Two weeks ago, the Iowa Board of Regents canceled its threatened 3 percent midyear tuition increase. Gushing with praise, the Regents thanked Gov. Vilsack for looking in “every pot and barrel” to find millions more dollars in funding for the three universities after the legislative session left the Board short of the $40 million requested increase.

The thought of Gov. Vilsack “looking” for millions of dollars — pouring over a copy of Iowa’s $5 billion budget looking for extra money, searching through the capitol’s sofas for spare change, redeeming the legislator’s empty pop bottles — is amusing.

Most of the surprise funding increase comes, however, not from severe penny-pinching or budget trade-offs, but from two sources: a $5.7 million grant of federal money to the University of Iowa hospitals and a predicted $4 million savings from Vilsack’s decision to work with Regents to increase purchasing efficiencies. It is difficult to determine how much credit Vilsack deserves for acquiring the federal funding. As for the savings from purchasing efficiencies, we are not sure whether to be highly skeptical such an amount can be saved or incredibly upset such savings was not attempted before.

Nevertheless, the additional funding eventually fulfilled the Board of Regent’s request for $40 million. The Regent’s Transformation Plan, however, calls for an additional $40 million in funding for each of the next three years in order to keep tuition increases in the 3 to 5 percent range.

This year’s last minute funding scramble does not bode well for future years. Federal funds are not always forthcoming, and trimming fat from where it’s already been trimmed gets progressively harder. The actions of Iowa’s politicians have shown that they still take the view that higher education is a frill that can be funded when tax revenues are high and cut when revenues are low.

The universities can’t function on this unpredictable revenue rollercoaster, and they have made it clear that when the state is not forthcoming, the difference will be remedied by passing the costs on to students. This has been the case for the past four years — as state funding was cut and tuition rates rose precipitously. The Regents have now discovered that threatening midyear tuition increases is an effective way to extract more money from the state, and they are not likely to abandon the strategy.

We do realize the situation for students this year could be much worse; tuition will still increase by 4 percent this fall, but the additional $74 proposed increase for the spring semester has been averted.

So, Gov. Vilsack, please forgive our belated arrival to the chorus of your admirers and accept our unenthusiastic and begrudged “thank you.”