Most local legislators are waving goodbye to their privilege of handing out college tuition waivers.

Despite the fact that the legislative scholarship program has long been a source of corruption and embarrassment, state legislators have repeatedly refused to give up the perk. They just can't bring themselves to abandon the opportunity to hand out tuition waivers each year to college students, some of whom are truly worthy and some of whom simply have the right political connections.

Still, the sorry image of this program combined with the state's terrible financial condition has prompted a number of legislators not to participate. Indeed, most area lawmakers have not participated or say they will no longer be participating in the tuition-waiver process.

But newly appointed state Sen. Shane Cultra, an Onarga Republican, said he will continue to hand out the tuition waivers – strictly on the merit, of course – even though he says he would "probably" vote to abolish the program.

Every legislator is entitled to make his own judgment on the issue, just as the voters can make their own judgment on what the legislators decide.

But Cultra's position appears to be utterly at odds with his very public stance as an anti-spending, anti-tax, anti-unfunded mandate public official.

He defends his position on the grounds that the state appropriates tax dollars to institutions of higher education, including the University of Illinois, although it's less and less each year as a percentage of the UI budget. Given those appropriations, he said, "to say that the scholarships aren't funded, well, to me that's ridiculous."

Cultra is confusing apples with oranges by asserting that state appropriations are the functional equivalent of funding legislative scholarships. It ends up working that way because universities must absorb the costs of the scholarships, and they end up doing so by reallocating funds intended for other purposes or raising tuition.

Students pay tuition to attend the UI, Eastern Illinois, Parkland College, you name it. When, at the General Assembly's command, any of these institutions are ordered to admit students without charging tuition, the money must be made up somewhere. To suggest these scholarships aren't an unfunded burden reflects a misunderstanding of the circumstances.

Cultra has looked at the facts and reached a different conclusion than his area colleagues – both Democrats and Republicans. His colleagues have decided that, considering all the circumstances, they will no longer put themselves in the politically advantageous positions of handing out tuition waivers.

They're taking principled positions while Cultra is taking the much easier, but also less fiscally responsible, path.

The real answer to the problems these scholarships pose is to eliminate them.

Perhaps this will be the year the Legislature, as a whole, finally does so.