The Arkansas legislature is taking a different approach to reining in soaring tuition costs: Today it sent a bill to the governor’s desk that would cap the amount of money public colleges can spend on scholarships.

Increases in scholarship aid lead to higher tuition costs, State Rep. Bill Abernathy, who shepherded the Senate-passed bill through the House of Representatives, told Associated Press. “You almost have the reverse Robin Hood scenario,” said Mr. Abernathy, a Democrat. “You’re taking from the poor and giving it to the rich in some cases.”

The legislation, Senate Bill 316, was unanimously approved in both chambers. It stipulates that public colleges and universities may spend no more than 30 percent of their general tuition and fee revenue on scholarships, with the cap being lowered to 20 percent by the 2012-13 fiscal year. Institutions that exceeded that cap would receive less state support, and lawmakers said they would use the extra money to bolster scholarship programs that benefit the state’s neediest students.

The General Assembly passed a similar bill in 2005 setting a 30-percent cap, but did not include any penalties for institutions that exceeded that amount. —Megan Eckstein