California's governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, proposed a revised budget last week that would still impose significant cuts on the University of California and California State University Systems and would still raise tuition by double-digit percentages during 2004-5.

Community colleges got better news. They would receive a 6.4-percent, or $325-million, increase in their overall budget under the governor's plan, which Mr. Schwarzenegger released on Thursday. That is about $46-million more than the governor had proposed for the two-year institutions in his original budget, in January.

In his new proposal, Mr. Schwarzenegger backed away from some recommendations in his earlier budget that higher-education officials had opposed. Those ideas included a plan that would have prevented the amount of the state's need-based Cal Grants for students from rising to keep pace with tuition increases and a call to eliminate all state funds for university-run programs that provide outreach services to students at elementary and secondary schools.

The revised budget includes $10.4-million to increase Cal Grants to help students cover the cost of proposed tuition increases. How much state money the outreach programs receive would be hashed out over the next several weeks, as state legislators and the governor put together a final budget plan for the next fiscal year, which begins in July.

Catherine L. Unger, president of the Board of Governors of the state's community-college system, praised Mr. Schwarzenegger's budget for providing more money for two-year institutions even as the state grapples with a $14-billion budget deficit. "These budget proposals go far in helping the system to effectively serve California's educational and training needs," she said.

The governor also kept his promise to officials at the University of California and California State University to not propose any cuts beyond what he had recommended in January. Mr. Schwarzenegger made that commitment as he and university officials announced a multiyear compact earlier last week (The Chronicle, May 12) .

As part of that agreement, university leaders said they would accept the proposed cuts for 2004-5, and the governor endorsed modest increases in appropriations and in enrollment for the two university systems in each of the following six fiscal years.

Under the revised budget, state funds for the University of California would be cut by $210-million, or 7.2 percent. The cut would be about $20-million less than what the governor proposed in January.

For Cal State, Mr. Schwarzenegger's plan prescribes a reduction of $240-million, or 9 percent. The revised budget would shave about $620,000 off of the cut the governor originally recommended.

On tuition, the governor almost halved the 40-percent increase in rates for graduate students that he had proposed in January. He recommended that graduate students at the University of California and those pursuing teaching credentials at Cal State pay 20 percent more in 2004-5. For other Cal State graduate students, Mr. Schwarzenegger recommended a 25-percent increase.

For in-state undergraduates at both university systems, the governor proposed a 14-percent tuition increase, more than the 10-percent rise he included in his January budget. He kept his tuition proposals the same for out-of-state undergraduates, who would face a 20-percent increase, and for community-college students, who would see their rates rise by 44 percent.

In addition, the budget continues to call for bigger jumps in tuition for community-college students who already hold a bachelor's degree, proposing that they pay $50 per credit hour, nearly three times the current rate of $18 per credit hour.

The revised budget also continues to include enrollment reductions for the University of California and Cal State. It would reduce the number of new freshmen at four-year institutions by 10 percent, or about 7,000 students over all, in 2004-5. The universities have already put in place plans that will direct those students to community colleges and guarantee them places on a four-year campus if they want to transfer after two years.

The governor has proposed that those students be allowed to attend a community college at no cost.