NEW KENSINGTON — Penn State's trustees approved two plans to raise tuition Friday, and the final state budget will determine which hike students will have to pay.

The worst-case plan would raise the base tuition of $13,014 by nearly 10 percent for lower-level, in-state, main campus students if the school's $338.4 million appropriation is cut by $61 million in the state budget. Students will pay 4.5 percent more if a March budget proposal passes, cutting state funding by just $20.3 million and offsetting that with federal stimulus funds.

The lower increase also requires state budget approval by Friday, when the school sends out fall tuition bills. Otherwise, the higher increase takes effect but could be rolled back for the spring semester if Penn State eventually gets the higher level of state funding.

Penn State president Graham Spanier cited the state's "unprecedented" budget situation — lawmakers are trying to erase a $3.2 billion deficit — in proposing the either/or tuition plan.

Spanier is still hopeful the Legislature will OK the budget plan with the stimulus funding. But Gov. Ed Rendell last month asked for the larger $61 million cut and contends Penn State and three other "state-related" schools — Pitt, Temple and Lincoln — don't qualify for stimulus funds because the state doesn't control their budgets.

Under the worst-case scenario, tuition for freshmen and sophomores, in-state and on the main campus, will rise 9.8 percent, or $1,280 per year, while out-of-state students would pay $1,920 more. The best-case increases are $590 and $886 per year for in-state, and out-of-state students, respectively.

Tuition at satellite campuses would rise 4.9 percent for all students in the worst-case scenario, or 3.9 percent for all students in the best-case scenario.

Rendell plans to spread $42 million in stimulus money among 14 state-owned universities and some community colleges to help offset tuition increases in those schools. He noted Penn State's base tuition was about $2,400 more than the state-owned schools in 1998. But that gap has grown to about $7,600 as the state schools have kept tuition increases in line with inflation, Rendell contends.