AUGUSTA (AP) – With the fate of a $60 million borrowing package in the hands of state voters, Democratic and Republican House and Senate leaders conferred with Gov. John Baldacci on Tuesday about further bond options for November.

Discussions appeared to break off inconclusively, with the acceptable level of another borrowing package described as a central issue.

In separate discussions, after unanimously approving yet another budget bill, the Appropriations Committee reviewed leftover spending proposals that failed to make it into previous legislation.

More work on those items was held over for Wednesday.

The Appropriations deliberations coincided with continuing talks among Taxation Committee members and Baldacci administration officials over the breadth and detail of tax system changes that various parties might agree to this year.

Those talks have been held in the shadow of a looming November ballot question backed by the Maine Municipal Association.

The MMA-backed proposal, submitted to the Legislature with the signatures of more than 96,000 voters, seeks to require the state to pay 55 percent of funding for public education from kindergarten through 12th grade.

Advocates say such a boost would lead to a substantial easing of local property tax burdens, a widely shared goal but one that has spawned more discussion than action in recent years.

Baldacci’s alternative to the MMA-backed plan would promote regional consolidations of government services and education and authorize limited purpose local option sales taxes.

It would also redirect money from the broad-based state homestead exemption to the more narrowly targeted Maine residents property tax circuit-breaker program, eliminate the personal property tax on machinery and equipment and gradually lower the top marginal rate of the individual income tax.

On Tuesday night, the Taxation panel worked through a series of straw votes on various elements of a reworked version of the original Baldacci proposal put forth by the committee chairmen, Sen. Stephen Stanley, D-Medway, and Rep. David Lemoine, D-Old Orchard Beach.

The panel also heard an outline of another alternative, advanced by Democratic Reps. Arthur Lerman of Augusta and Edward Suslovic of Portland.

Members were scheduled to reconvene Wednesday.

Debate was expected to open in the House on Wednesday on the so-called Part 2 budget plan unanimously endorsed by the Appropriations Committee.

The budget-balancing measure is a reworked package building on Baldacci’s original proposal for bridging a $48 million revenue gap.

Enactment by the House and Senate would significantly advance the prospects for legislative leaders to conclude this year’s regular session, but whether a tax reform initiative will emerge soon remains unclear.

AP-ES-06-10-03 2145EDT

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