A correction was added to this editorial March 10.

Because of a reporting error, the March 9 editorial “Fund regents’ plan with cigarette tax” incorrectly stated that a legislative spending bill needed to be moved out of committee by Friday. Spending bills are not affected by the “funnel” deadline. The Daily regrets this error.

This isn’t a promising start.

The legislative committees responsible for funding Iowa State, as well as the other regent universities, appear to be highly partisan, highly dysfunctional groups.

Witness the minutes of the last meeting of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Education:

The meeting was called to order. Seven amendments to a proposed funding bill were discussed in succession. Two passed by short form, meaning they were not controversial. The other five failed, all by the same vote of four ayes and five nays.

The funding bill itself — in something of a surprise — passed by a 5-4 vote.

That bill, though, contained only a $6.3 million increase in funding for the regents institutions. This is not quite $40 million, the amount that you know, unless this is your first time reading the Daily, that the Board of Regents requested for the noble purposes of “transformation” and “excellence.”

And it’s the money that’s intended to keep tuition increases low.

The 51-49, 25-25 divisions in the Legislature have yet to show signs of working. We’re criticizing the House subcommittee, which is a little bit disingenuous since we haven’t seen even a semblance of a budget from the relevant Senate committee. It meets this morning — two days before the deadline to get bills out of committee and on to the chamber floor for discussion.

So, the process of getting this money hasn’t been derailed yet, but it’s getting there.

None of this money is gravy — it essentially just restores what has been cut during recent years.

Still, the $6.3 million figure (the only one we have) has at least some basis in reality, making it contingent on us to make a suggestion with at least some basis in reality for multiplying it by a factor of six or so.

The best way to start is to dump the party politics and increase the cigarette tax by 80 cents, as recommended by Gov. Tom Vilsack. (Actually, it would be wise to dump the party politics altogether, as every political pundit in the state has been advising since the session opened, but we digress.) This is projected to raise $34.3 million for the state, coincidentally very near the amount the universities need. It’s not a fair tax, but finding new revenue is not exactly an easy task. Cigarettes are a plausible, if imperfect, place to grab money.

Naturally, if the new tax rate were implemented, it wouldn’t all go toward higher education, but with the dearth of specifics in the budgeting process right now, it’s an OK place to start. Every little bit will help the universities recover — and save students money.