ATLANTA — Legislative budget writers and University System officials meeting Wednesday agreed on one thing: neither wants to implement the full list of possible cuts issued by the system Monday.

The list of cuts that included 4,000 layoffs, elimination of 4-H programs, closing many satellite campuses and disruption of hundreds of students. Members of the House and Senate who ultimately decide the appropriations for the system said they believe many of the proposed cuts were included for political value.

“It reminds me of when I worked for Ford (Motor Co.), and if you wanted to make a point, you put out a shock budget, and the cuts will be made elsewhere,” said Rep. John Yates, R-Griffin. Rep. Richard Smith, R-Columbus, agreed.

“Some of your folks, not all of them, use this as an opportunity to create public hysteria,” he told Chancellor Erroll Davis. “I think they’ve accomplished that.”

Davis instructed the presidents of the state’s 34 public colleges and universities to submit honest lists of where they would make the cuts if the system gets $300 million less than what Gov. Sonny Perdue recommended.

Georgia Highlands College in Rome submitted a list of 12 items, adding up to more than $2.4 million. Among its proposed cuts are the elimination of its new Douglasville and Dallas campuses, the elimination of its vice president for student services, a dramatic reduction of admissions in the nursing program and the elimination of the dental hygiene program once currently enrolled students complete the program. Perdue had already called for a $265 million cut in funding.

Lawmakers reported being swamped with calls and e-mails from the public opposing various cuts on the list. The hearing room for Wednesday’s meeting was overflowing, with several college presidents standing along the back wall and groups of angry students left in the hall watching on closed-circuit television.

Students will hold a rally against the budget cuts on the main campus of Georgia Highlands College in Rome today at 10 a.m.

House Higher Education Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Earl Ehr­hart, R-Powder Springs, began the hearing with an announcement that the General Assembly has no constitutional authority to make the individual cuts proposed on the list. It can only make an appropriation to the Board of Regents, which then must decide how the money would be spent.

In a notice to faculty and staff across the entire University System, Davis said, “We strongly believe that cuts of this nature, if implemented, would severely compromise our ability to provide the educated populace that is necessary for the continued success of this state.”

Monday’s list was in response to legislators’ request for information about how the system would cope with a smaller budget if it didn’t boost tuition or fees to cushion the cuts. After getting the list Monday afternoon, Davis, some of the regents and senior legislators met to talk about other options.

Wednesday, Davis presented information on seven options that discussed at that meeting, including a 35-percent tuition increase, pay cuts, a shortened semester and a one-time fee of $1,000 for every student. He told legislators the regents would probably adopt a combination of those ideas, depending on how much the annual appropriation is ultimately cut.

Georgia Highlands President Randy Pierce stressed to his faculty and staff last week that the 12 proposed cuts at GHC are a “worst-case scenario” and that he did not anticipate the full list to be implemented simultaneously at the end of June.

Pierce said the cuts submitted to the General Assembly this week, along with previously announced budget cuts, would take the college back to the level of state funding that the GHC was getting when Pierce came to Rome nine years ago.

Lawmakers won’t decide that until they get a report on whether February’s tax collections continued to drop or have begun a rebound as Perdue had predicted.

Rome News-Tribune Associate Editor Doug Walker contributed to this report.