ATLANTA -- State officials are asking for a 14 percent jump in funding for the HOPE scholarship program, a move legislators say should highlight the need for changes in the program.

Legislators say the request for a $61 million increase may make it easier to convince the General Assembly that something needs to be done quickly to keep the popular lottery-funded program from running out of money in the next few years. The Legislature convenes in January.

"It makes it a more immediate issue," said Sen. Bill Hamrick, R-Douglasville, chairman of the Senate Higher Education Committee and co-chairman of a state commission that studied HOPE this fall. "The more information we've gotten to the surface, the clearer it is that something needs to be done."

HOPE officials have asked for more lottery money each year to pay for growth in the program. But the latest request is about $10 million more than in the previous year.

Past increases have been covered by increases in lottery sales. But the growth in lottery revenues is expected to slow, while HOPE costs continue to soar.

Officials have said if changes are not made, the HOPE scholarship and the lottery-funded pre-kindergarten programs may have to begin dipping into financial reserves in the 2006-07 budget year. The programs would sink $434 million into debt two years later, according to some state projections.

Estimates from the Student Finance Commission, which administers HOPE, suggest the fiscal day of reckoning could come as early as next year.

The commission's budget recommendations call for an increase from $441.3 million in HOPE spending this year to $502.8 million in fiscal 2005, which begins July 1. The budget is climbing close to matching expected lottery revenues.

Shelley Nickel, executive director of the Student Finance Commission, said the estimate for next year's HOPE spending may have to be adjusted because the budget probably does not fully take into account the increase in college enrollment this fall.

Enrollment rose 6 percent -- an increase of 14,000 students -- on the heels of a 7.1 percent jump the previous year.

Gov. Sonny Perdue and legislators acknowledge there is a problem, but it will be politically difficult to make substantive changes during the 2004 General Assembly. Next year is an election year, and HOPE is among the state's most popular programs.

Currently, students with a B average or higher receive full tuition, mandatory fees and money for books to attend a Georgia public college. Technical school students also are eligible for the scholarship, and students at Georgia private colleges can receive a $3,000 annual grant.