Skepticism among lawmakers in Congress that colleges are adequately trying to control costs may hinder legislation that would extend tax breaks for higher education, according to the chairman of the influential Senate Finance Committee. Senator Max S. Baucus said skepticism on Capitol Hill has been fueled by anger over multimillion-dollar coaches' salaries, huge endowment gains, and the student-loan scandal. Senator Baucus said he would push legislation to combine the two existing tuition tax credits, the Hope and Lifetime Learning credits. He also cited growing momentum to make those credits refundable, which would benefit lower-income families that do not owe taxes. The Finance Committee will consider several proposals to overhaul the tax benefits, Senator Baucus said. Plans to expand the credits and the federal income-tax deductions for college expenses carry substantial costs, with Senator Baucus's proposal priced at up to $25-billion over five years. Under pay-as-you-go-budgeting, those costs would have to be countered with new revenue or budget cuts, with at least some of the cuts coming from higher-education benefits. Senator Baucus would not discuss what those offsets "might be, because he said they had yet to be finalized and that "groups will line up against them" if specific proposals are announced. He also said that costs could be made up at least in part from elsewhere in the budget. "I don't expect the brunt" of the cost-countering provisions, Senator Baucus said, to be "directly education-related." Cost savers rumored to be on the table include limits on the tax-free tuition benefits that colleges give their employees and possible taxes on college endowments.