The recent big tuition increases should be no shock to university students and their parents given the fiscal choices that have been made since 1999, according to columnist Peter Luke. "If lawmakers won\'t reconsider a half-decade of tax reduction in order to boost state aid for colleges, the universities believe they have no choice but to hike tuition and fees," Luke wrote. Luke added that an upper-middle-class family with an adjusted gross income of $100,000 will pay $500 less in income taxes this year because of the 1999 tax cut that dropped the rate from 4.4 percent to 3.9 percent. An incoming freshman at Michigan State will pay $945 more in tuition this fall.