The state Legislature is expected to vote on the state budget today, almost two months before the deadline for the next fiscal year.

The 2007 fiscal year budget must be passed before the fiscal year begins on Oct. 1.

The budget is a compromise between three financial plans originally submitted by Gov. Jennifer Granholm and the Republican-controlled Senate and House of Representatives.

"There haven't been a lot of issues standing in the way of getting the budget done this time," said Ari Adler, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Ken Sikkema, R-Wyoming.

The budget wasn't passed until the end of September last year.

Greg Bird, spokesman for the state budget office, said there "was a willingness to cooperate" and a desire to get the budget done earlier this year.

Adler said the process had gone "more smoothly" than in the past and attributed it to the state having slightly more money in revenues to distribute.

Some of that money went to colleges and universities, which got anywhere from 2.5 to 6 percent increases. MSU will receive a 3 percent increase, or about $8.45 million more. Mike Boulus, executive director of the Presidents Council, State Universities of Michigan, said this is the first time in five years higher education has received an increase.

"We've finally succeeded in getting full recognition that higher education is a key component to a state's economic development," Boulus said.

Boulus said he'd like to see increases in future budgets, but that several factors such as the possible elimination of the Single Business Tax could hamper an increase.

Bird said funding higher education was important to Granholm, and although the increase wasn't as much as some had hoped, it was "a step in the right direction."

The 3 percent increase was important to MSU because it played a part in how much the increase in tuition would be, said MSU Board of Trustees Chairman David Porteous.

State appropriations make up at least half of MSU's budget, he said, and tuition increases this year were lower because of the 3 percent increase. The university raised tuition 5.9 percent for in-state undergraduates and 6.9 percent for out-of-state undergraduates for next year. That is a decrease from last year's increases of 9.3 percent for returning students and 13.5 percent for new students.

"The increase is a recognition of a couple of things, one of which is the very significant role that research universities like Michigan State play in the economic development of the state," Porteous said.

Porteous said MSU officials and people in different areas of the university constantly work with state legislators to make sure they understand the importance of funding higher education.

"Everybody across the university redoubled their efforts to make sure people were aware of the MSU story," Porteous said.

He also said because legislators are term-limited and new ones are always coming in, the university has to keep educating these representatives about MSU and what it does.

"Legislators are depending on individuals briefing them and keeping them apprised of what's going on," Porteous said.