BANGOR (AP) – University of Maine System trustees tentatively raised tuition Monday by an average of 12.6 percent while appealing to the Legislature for additional state funding to help soften the blow.

The board authorized Chancellor Terrence MacTaggart to recalculate and lower the tuition hike in the event that lawmakers approve a university appropriation that exceeds the $5 million increase contained in Gov. John Baldacci’s proposed budget.

The pledge to lower rates if additional state money is forthcoming was part of MacTaggart’s proposed “tuition offset plan” that also includes additional administrative cuts and cost savings that would go toward lowering tuition and increasing student financial aid.

Tuition at the seven-campus system has gone up each year since 1996 and now averages $6,450 a year for undergraduates. Last year’s increase averaged 8.7 percent systemwide.

MacTaggart said the 12.6 percent hike approved by the board was “the lowest rate possible to ensure academic quality and integrity.”

“I must emphasize that this rate is tentative,” he said. “If our state policy makers succeed in funding part or all of the tuition offset plan, the University of Maine System will immediately reduce the tentative tuition rate to the lowest level necessary to balance our (fiscal year) 08 budget.”

MacTaggart noted adding $6 million to the governor’s recommended $5 million increase would lower the tuition hike to 7 percent. Historically, the board waits until the state budget is decided before setting tuition rates. Time constraints, however, prompted trustees to move ahead and set a figure.

Margaret Weston, chairwoman of the board, said the state has failed over the past 18 years to keep pace with the system’s growth in enrollment, which now stands at 34,200.

“State appropriations and tuition rates are the two largest variables in the university system budget calculation,” she said. “We look to the state to invest in our universities so that we can minimize the cost of tuition. We have a responsibility to treat tuition as the ‘revenue source of last resort’ when preparing the annual budget.”