Illinois incoming freshmen or their parents might not have to worry about increasing tuition rates.

There is a bill now in the legislature proposing students a guaranteed tuition cap for four years at the rate they pay freshman year.

The legislation, House Bill No. 1118 passed almost unanimously last week.

There are usually several bills on the similar issues, sometimes conflicting, said Interim President Lou Hencken.

While the tuition cap bill is one the university is following, there are currently 133 pieces of legislation Eastern is tracking.

The tuition bill does not limit the initial increase for freshman year. It is one bill Eastern can live with, Hencken said.

Eastern already considered implementing the bill’s specifics, but backed off because of “some of the economic situations on the horizon.”

“Because we were thinking about it, people came up to us and said ‘well, you already have it,'” he said.

Western Illinois University is one school offering tuition rates for four years.

The bill will likely pass in the state Senate, Hencken said.

“The advantage is being able to predict what your cost is going to be three or four years down the road,” he said.” It’s a very good recruiting tool.”

However, the bill could cause students to pay differently for the same course, depending on when they enter freshman year.

The other 130 bills will not likely “have quite the consequences,” Hencken said.

Of that number, most deal with tuition, said Julia Abell, director of Planning and Institutional Studies.

“There’s a couple that have to do with tuition discounts,” she said.

Legislation on tuition income and line-item budgeting are also bills Eastern is watching, Hencken said.

House Bill No. 1263 “eliminates the authority granted to each of the public universities in 1996 to hold tuition revenues locally,” according to a legislative report to the Illinois Board of Higher Education.

The legislation has not been called for a committee vote. It details an issue at the top of bills Eastern is tracking.

The bill proposes tuition income be deposited into the state treasury.

Hencken said it could have more of a negative impact.

“It really affects flexibility,” he said.

Senate Bill No. 89 deals with appropriations.

It is also a top issue because the bill requires specific appropriation amounts be reported for administration, civil service, instruction and research “within each of these categories to identify individual line items,” the IBHE report stated.

The bills are two of several the board will discuss Tuesday.

Right now the university is tracking slightly more bills than usual.

“Last year, we tracked right at 100 bills,” Abell said.