Sacramento -- California's higher education systems and local governments, after years of having their funds slashed when the state ran short of money, have agreed to absorb short-term budget cuts in exchange for promises of long-term financial stability.

If approved by the Legislature, the deals cut with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger would mean California's public colleges and universities would stop turning away eligible freshmen starting in the 2005-06 school year, and local governments could eventually have their funding protected in a constitutional amendment.

The deals will be announced today and Wednesday, ahead of Thursday's release of the governor's revised budget. The state faces a $15 billion budget shortfall, and Schwarzenegger has maintained that he will not raise taxes to close that gap.

Legislative Democrats, however, warned that they had not been consulted on the budget negotiations and would not rubber-stamp any agreements the governor reaches.

"No one is going to sidestep the Legislature," said Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles. "Those who have not consulted with us ... they seem to forget that the Legislature plays a vital role."

Nunez said he was worried that the deals might provide short-term benefits but end up costing the state too much in the long run.

"We want to make sure today's solution doesn't become tomorrow's problem, " he said. "We're not simply looking at getting out of the budget mess this year, we're looking at how do we solve the problem from what the standpoint of what is in the best interest of the entire state of California."

The leaders of the University of California and California State University will join Schwarzenegger today to announce that they had agreed to funding cuts and tuition hikes this year in exchange for a guarantee that the state would fund any eligible student the following year.

Sources familiar with discussions say the deal will send enough funding to universities to allow enrollment growth for the fall 2005 semester, following budget cuts this year that have both UC and CSU turning away qualified applicants for the first time.

In addition, the deal calls for an annual incremental growth in the higher education budget to offset cuts that have been made during the last three years.

The agreement is similar to one struck by Gov. Pete Wilson and universities in 1995, when Wilson cut higher education funding for one year but agreed to increased funding for four years after that.

In January, Schwarzenegger proposed funding cuts for higher education that would result in tuition hikes at UC and CSU campuses of 10 percent. Tuition for graduate students would rise by 40 percent.

The higher education cuts also mean that for the first time, California's public universities are turning away qualified applicants. UC has rejected 7, 600 students for the fall semester, and CSU about 3,800.

University officials say the proposed reductions will hurt the academic quality of state schools. But a deal to stop further cuts will go a long way toward keeping faculty from leaving and preserve educational standards, one faculty representative said.

"A statement now saying the governor is committed to higher education in the future helps,'' said Lawrence Pitts, chairman of the UC faculty Academic Senate.

Meanwhile, representatives of cities and counties are expected Wednesday to embrace a deal with Schwarzenegger in which they give up $2.6 billion over the next two years in exchange for a constitutional guarantee that their funds will not be raided in the future.

Schwarzenegger will support and campaign of a constitutional amendment that would be put on the November ballot to protect the main sources of revenue for cities and counties -- property and sales taxes -- starting in 2006.

The deal also includes exchanging the amount of money local governments get from vehicle license fees with an equal amount of property tax.

Several powerful lawmakers who have worked on local government financing for years, however, said they were not inclined to support such a deal. They want cities to rely less on sales tax and more on property tax because they believe it will encourage the building of housing instead of auto malls and big-box retail stores.

Sen. Tom Torlakson, D-Antioch, chair of the Senate Local Government Committee, said he had serious concerns about the proposed deal.

The chair of the Assembly Budget Committee said it would be a significant mistake to not push for a change in the type of revenue local governments receive.

"I believe strongly that any constitutional protection must be coupled with reform," said Assemblyman Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento. "Cities and counties are overly reliant on sales tax, and we need to give them more property tax."

Cities are opposed to any switch away from sales tax, saying they have already made development decisions based on the current structure.

Bay Area city leaders say they aren't thrilled with a deal, but faced with Schwarzenegger's political muscle and his commitment on the constitutional amendment, local leaders swallowed hard and agreed.

"On one hand we don't like the idea of having our pockets picked one more time,'' said San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales' spokesman David Vossbrink. "But on the other hand, we do like the idea of having long-term (fiscal) stability.''

The San Jose City Council -- which has already made cuts to close a $70 million budget deficit for the coming fiscal year -- anticipates the state's asking for another $10 to $15 million if the governor's budget deal goes through.

"That means we're going to have to go back and lay off more people and cut more services and shrink library hours and close some parks down,'' Vossbrink said. "We don't like it. But in the world of realpolitik there's not much we can do about it.''.