MSU students will have to wait a few weeks longer than in previous years to receive their tuition bills for the upcoming school year.

As tuition for the 2005-06 school year hinges on the authorization of the Legislature's state higher-education budget, the MSU Board of Trustees has delayed the process of setting tuition and sending out tuition bills until the university's state funding is certain.

Last year, tuition rates were approved in late June, and students received their tuition electronically on July 23. In 2003, tuition bills were sent on July 18.

University officials said students will have to wait a bit longer than usual to receive their tuition bills.

Members of the state House of Representatives and the Senate will soon meet with Gov. Jennifer Granholm in a conference committee to compromise on three proposed methods to fund the state's 15 public universities.

Terry Denbow, MSU spokesman, said he anticipates the board will have a special meeting in July to set tuition as quickly as possible.

Trustee Chairman David Porteous said in previous years that the board has been able to meet and set tuition in June or early July and that this year is probably one of the latest times that the university will be finalizing tuition.

"Our preference would have been to send out tuition bills earlier, but we need to get the Legislature and governor to set the budget so we know what our budget will be," Porteous said. "That really needs to happen within the next several weeks because we can't wait much beyond that."

If a resolution within the Legislature doesn't occur, Porteous said the board will just have to do its best to guesstimate the amount of funding MSU will receive.

"Obviously, we want to avoid setting tuition too high or too low," Porteous said. "But on the other hand, if the legislators haven't agreed on the budget, we have no choice but to set it and get tuition bills out."

MSU isn't the only university within the state that is behind schedule on setting tuition.

Central Michigan University usually sends out its tuition bills in mid-July, university spokeswoman Pat Lichtman said.

"We're waiting to see what happens," she said. "The administrators are exploring a number of options, but nothing has been decided yet."

The CMU Board of Trustees is set to meet July 14 to discuss the budget shortfall. Lichtman said members are expected to set tuition rates at that meeting because the next scheduled board meeting is in mid-September, after school has started.