Such leveraging has been a boon in weak economies when interest rates on the bond debt have been low and construction costs have been cheap so that a little money goes even further.

To keep all the obligations from growing out of hand the state constitution limits bond debt payments to no more than 10 percent of the prior year's total state budget. State leaders have used a more conservative maximum of 7 percent just to avoid jeopardizing the state's top-flight AAA credit rating.

Declining tax collections resulted in next budget year's total bond package being 25 percent less than the current year, forcing the postponement of many planned projects, notes Gov. Sonny Perdue's spokesman Bert Brantley.

"We obviously did not foresee this kind of revenue drop. So you have to rethink that," he said.

When the budget shrinks, as it has for the last three years, and college enrollment balloons as it has since the mid-1990s, capital needs grow while available bond capacity contracts. That's just for keeping up with the routine demands. The regents have some bold, long-term initiatives, like development of two installations being abandoned by the military, and the capacity limitation becomes more confining.

To expand the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, construct its campus at the site of the U.S. Naval Supply Corps School in Athens, and develop a biotech-research center at the site of the U.S. Army's Fort McPherson in Atlanta, will take more than the routine funding.

At the same time the total bond capacity is reducing, Perdue has proposed a greater share of what's available for the construction of highways, from $100 million per year to $300 million. Future governors aren't bound by his plan, but business leaders across the state have vocally lobbied for increase transportation spending for the last three years.

During the February regents meeting, Alan Travis, an analyst in the University System's facilities planning department, provided a peek over the horizon.

"We are looking at a situation internally that is unsustainable," he said.

In the coming fiscal year, the agency requested $393 million in bonds for construction, but Perdue only recommends $121 million. In each of the next four, the system projects basic needs of $584 million, $776 million, $488 million and $303 million, not counting the Fort Mac developments.

To cope with the capital shortage means finding ways to educate students without building as many buildings.

"That's why we'll have to have more novel facilities utilization, increased focus on online distance education and some new sources of financing," said Chancellor Erroll Davis. "We can't get there under the present system."

Other states use different methods independent of their state's bonding capacity.

Texas institutions issue "tuition revenue bonds" which are repaid with students' checks each semester. The legislature has let schools set their own tuition since 2003. Tuition at the University of Texas has doubled, and Texas Tech has risen 50 percent since then.

Interest on the bonds, though, is appropriated by the legislature out of general tax funds.

Rep. Dan Branch, chairman of the House Higher Education Committee, said the tuition bonds have been helpful in the state's goal of boosting more schools to national prominence.

"One could argue that the ultimate liability is with the institution, but it's a public school, so you've got the state behind it," he said. "If you believe in the fact there will be 50,000 students at the University of Austin every semester for the next 20 years and that they will be paying tuition, it's a solid investment."

To minimize the risk to the state, a committee can veto an institution's request to issue bonds, and the legislature must appropriate the funds for interest payments, which becomes a political fight, he said. Texas has five university systems, unlike Georgia's single system.

In North Carolina, schools issue certificates of participation, a type of installment purchase or lease. An institution buys a building, transfers it to a trustee who then sells certificates to investors who get regular payments for a period.

"That one, I don't like," said Ran Coble, director of the North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research in Raleigh, an independent think tank. "But it's on my radar screen."

His objection is the law there requires voters to approve bond issues but not certificates of participation.

As an investor, the lease payments are only as certain as the legislature's appropriations or the income from fees associated with the project, such as parking charges for a garage or activity fees for a recreation center.

Georgia officials haven't offered any recommendations on which path the governor and the regents should take. For now, the bonding limit is just another financial challenge waiting to be solved.

"We're open to any idea they want to bring up," said Brantley of Perdue's office.