DES MOINES — Although the Board of Regents and Iowa’s three public universities said they are delighted to see that Gov. Tom Vilsack’s proposed budget for next year includes additional funding for the regent universities, Iowa Senate Republicans are questioning the governor’s recommended spending increases.

In his annual budget report, Vilsack recommended providing $40 million in funding for the regent universities in fiscal year 2006. The board has asked the Legislature to allocate $40 million each of the next four years. Half the money would be dedicated to increasing faculty salaries.

The budget recommendation marks the first in a series of critical steps for Iowa students and their families to gain stable, predictable tuition levels for the next several years.

“I’m delighted by the governor’s budget recommendation,” ISU President Gregory Geoffroy said. “While everything is in the hands of the Legislature, with this, we can begin reinvesting in the universities and reinvesting in the educational programs and excellence of our regent institutions.”

Robert Downer of Iowa City, acting president of the Board of Regents, said the governor’s recommendations would benefit Iowans by strengthening the role of university research in advancing Iowa’s economy and would produce more, highly educated and talented graduates in important areas of Iowa’s workforce.

“I think that he clearly has education on his high list of priorities,” Davenport Regent Amir Arbisser said.

Senate Democrats expressed similar approval for Vilsack’s proposed budget.

“The regents have been cut very severely, and any money the governor proposes this year should be simply looked at as restoring the funds of the past,” said Sen. Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames, a member of the House and Senate Joint Education Appropriations Subcommittee.

Yet, Quirmbach said, the governor should have gone further to propose a one-year freeze on tuition increases for next year.

“I’m critically concerned about tuition relief,” he said. “Students have had to pick up 100 percent of the cost increases on top of having to burden the shortfall in state funding. I think students and their parents deserve a break.”

State Rep. Lisa Heddens, D-Ames, said House Democrats share the same sentiment.

“We really need to put forth efforts to keep professors in Iowa and be competitive with other states,” Heddens said. “We haven’t been able to do this in past years, and the Legislature and this budget needs to give the universities that ability.”

Though they have supported the idea of the Board of Regents plan, Senate Republicans have criticized the governor’s budget for recommending a 10 percent increase in state spending.

“We have indicated to the universities that we like the transformation concept, but we don’t think the governor’s budget is fundable long-term,” said Senate Republican President Jeff Lamberti of Ankeny. “If we grow government by 10 percent or more, I don’t know how we will have a balanced budget next year. I don’t think it puts us in a sustainable position. I think it puts us in a budget crisis within a year.”

Vilsack proposed using an increase to Iowa’s cigarette tax, future state gaming revenues and borrowed money to allow for the budget’s increased spending — proposals Senate Republicans are opposed to.

“If the cigarette tax doesn’t pass, there is no way to meet all of his spending proposals, and that could include funding for the universities,” Lamberti said.

State Sen. Michael Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, said changing the accounting for property tax credits to the general budget, which Republicans opposed a year ago, and increasing funding for Medicaid make up most of the new spending. He said Vilsack’s proposal is really only a 2 percent increase to state spending.

“It makes more sense to assess needs first and then figure out what we’ll do on the revenue side of the equation,” Gronstal said.