California's two public-university systems, which froze and then rolled back tuition by 10 percent during the economic boom of the late 1990s, took steps on Wednesday to increase their price tags for some 600,000 students by as much as 30 percent this fall.

The governing boards of the University of California and California State University systems acted even though California lawmakers remain deadlocked over how to close a $38-billion hole in a state budget that is already two weeks late. But after delaying votes on tuition increases this spring in the hope that the budget picture would clear up, members of the two boards said that if they waited any longer, there would be little time to notify students of the new charges.

"The fee proposal is a difficult one," said Richard C. Atkinson, president of the University of California. "But it is only one of many actions being taken to cope with this budget crisis."

The University of California's tuition plan must go before the system's Board of Regents today after narrowly passing a board committee on Wednesday. But the decision by Cal State is final, as its Board of Trustees blessed a 30-percent increase on Wednesday. In-state undergraduates at Cal State will see their tuition -- or "fees," as tuition is known in California -- rise to $2,044 from $1,572. For graduate students, fees will rise to $2,254 from $1,734.

When Cal State's board delayed a vote on tuition in May, it had been considering a 25-percent increase proposed by Gov. Gray Davis, a Democrat. But every week since then, the state's fiscal crisis has worsened, leading Cal State's chancellor, Charles B. Reed, to push for a larger increase, one that even he admitted may not prevent layoffs or enrollment cuts.

"At this time, it is prudent for each CSU campus to review its current 2003-2004 enrollment scenario and prepare contingency plans for reducing enrollment," Mr. Reed wrote in a letter last month to presidents of the system's 23 campuses.

Officials at the University of California, meanwhile, pledged on Wednesday that they would avoid cutting enrollment to pay for reductions in state aid, at least for now. Under the plan approved Wednesday by a 5-to-4 vote of the regents' finance committee, in-state undergraduate tuition would rise by 25 percent, to $4,794. But the regents also gave Mr. Atkinson the authority to raise tuition by an additional 5 percent, depending on how the state-budget crisis is resolved.

The tuition increases for this fall will come on top of midyear raises, approved last December, that took effect in both systems this spring. Even though that fee increase marked the first time either system had raised rates since 1994-95 (and fees were even cut at one point), the debate over tuition at the University of California grew contentious several times during a two-hour discussion at the regents' meeting on Wednesday.

The state's lieutenant governor, Cruz M. Bustamante, a Democrat, accused university officials of lying when they reported that even with the proposed increases, tuition rates would still be lower than in most other states. Mr. Bustamante, an ex officio regent, said that analysis had failed to take account of room-and-board costs. "This increase lacks vision and is shortsighted," he said.

Ward Connerly, a regent who voted against the proposal, said the university should figure out a way to spread the increase over a longer period of time, even at the expense of academic quality. "What good is quality," he said, "if we're closing people out?"

While many other regents opposed the idea of imposing a large tuition increase on families during difficult economic times, the plan is still likely to pass the full board today because the regents have few other choices. University officials also noted that, in general, students from families with incomes of $60,000 or less will have the increase fully covered by financial aid.

Several regents said the university system needed to develop better tuition policies in the long run, including regular increases or raises tied to the family income of students.

"Students should pay the cost of their education," said John G. Davies, a regent and San Diego lawyer. "The students in the last seven years got a bargain, and the students here now are paying the cost."