HARRISBURG — The chancellor of Pennsylvania’s 14 state-owned universities defended raises for about 1,500 nonunion administrators, including himself, even as state officials predicted a difficult budget year.

Chancellor John Cavanaugh told a Pennsylvania Press Club luncheon in downtown Harrisburg that university administrators hadn’t had a raise in two-and-a-half years. The average 3 percent merit raise went into effect Jan. 1 at a cost of about $6 million a year out of a $1.4 billion system budget, a system spokesman said.

Asked if he would return his raise or ask other administrators to do so, Cavanaugh said the system board of governors sets compensation levels. He also noted that the system’s unionized work force of about 12,000 received raises last year.

Union contracts expire June 30. The largest union, the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculty, has offered to negotiate a one-year salary freeze.

Gov. Tom Corbett has proposed a 2011-12 budget plan that would slash state aid by more than 50 percent for the state-owned universities in the State System of Higher Education, which includes Slippery Rock University.