JEFFERSON CITY • Missouri is fast reaching the point where many students from low- and moderate-income families will be priced out of a college education, presidents of public universities told a House committee Wednesday.

The administrators said they have tried to limit tuition increases the last several years, even as state funding has shrunk. But the 12.5 percent reduction in state funds proposed by Gov. Jay Nixon for next year can't be offset solely by administrative savings or efficiencies, they warned.

"I could fire every administrator I have and I couldn't come up with $15 million," the amount needed to replace $10 million in state funds and pay growing bills for utilities and other expenses at his campus, said Missouri State University interim President Clifton "Clif" Smart.

At the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg, savings from a hiring freeze and the elimination of eight academic departments helped keep tuition increases to an average of 1.4 percent over the last three years.

But if legislators adopt Nixon's proposal, state appropriations would provide less than 40 percent of the schools' total funding, which President Chuck Ambrose called "a fundamental threshold. This budget moves us to the edge" of being able to keep college affordable, he said.

The House Education Appropriations Committee heard from the presidents of Missouri's 10 four-year public universities, as well as representatives of the state's technical and community colleges.

So far the most specific tuition increase proposal has come from the University of Missouri. That system's Board of Curators, which is meeting today in Kansas City, is considering an average 6.5 percent increase in tuition and fees at its four campuses.

Legislators have said they want to soften Nixon's budget cuts. But given the state's $500 million budget shortfall, they acknowledged that they aren't likely to be able to offer substantial relief.

"It's sad," said Committee Chairman Mike Lair, R-Chillicothe. "I wish it were not this way."

Kenneth Dobbins, president of Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau, said legislators have a difficult job because "it's a sum-zero game. If you give to someone, you've got to take from someone else."

Smart, the Missouri State University leader, came close to saying the governor and Legislature should instead look to increase state revenue.

Given that Missouri's goals are to increase the number of residents who are college graduates and to make college accessible to all qualified students, "it appears to me there is a disconnect between what we say is important — our collective intent — and our collective actions," he said.

Asked later whether he was suggesting a tax increase, Smart said: "I'm going to stay out of that minefield."

He added that a tax credit overhaul — championed by Nixon last year but killed by gridlock between the House and Senate — could provide $200 million for state coffers.

Several of the college presidents noted that Nixon's proposed reduction in funds would bring the state's cuts to 24.5 percent over the last three years.

While Nixon's budget holds scholarship funding stable, the money will be divided among a larger number of students, reducing the amount each receives, noted Constance Gully, chief financial officer at Harris-Stowe State University in St. Louis.

At the same time, federal Pell grants for low-income students are being scaled back, an especially painful move at Harris-Stowe, where 93 percent of the students qualify for the grants.

The administrators listed ways they have coped with previous cuts, including by axing programs, encouraging early retirements, partnering with other universities, delaying building repairs, scaling back scholarships and increasing enrollment.

They've also taken smaller steps.

At Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph, trash collection is limited to once a week. Rather than let a banana peel smell up the office, employees now take such refuse outside, said President Bob Vartabedian.

If next year's cuts are as large as Nixon proposed, class sizes will increase and some classes will not be offered as often, the officials predicted. University reserve funds will be used.

But that won't be enough, the presidents said. That means tuition increases.

"We're at the point now where we'll have to have a significant increase, " said Smart, of Missouri State University.