BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) – Lawmakers have started moving proposals to let public college campuses raise their own tuition and fee rates to help offset hefty budget cuts from the state.

The House and Senate education committees Wednesday advanced several bills that would remove the Legislature from setting tuition and fees. The proposals vary. Some apply only to graduate programs or only to fees.

The tuition proposals differ in the House and Senate in how they link to the TOPS free college tuition program.

The version headed to the House floor would exclude any additional tuition increases from being covered by TOPS. The bill headed to the full Senate for consideration is linked to a separate proposal that adds new cost controls to TOPS.

Higher education leaders are pushing the legislation to fill budget gaps.