AUGUSTA (AP) – Property taxes, the budget and bonds are at the top of the agenda as the Maine Legislature returns to work on Tuesday, a little over a month after newly elected members were sworn in during the ceremonial start of the two-year session.

The session starts off this year at a brisk pace, with work well under way on Gov. John Baldacci’s sweeping bill to ease property taxes and a Jan. 14 deadline in place to have a final package ready for floor votes.

“That’s a hard deadline,” House Speaker John Richardson, D-Brunswick, said Monday. “It’s coming out and when it does, we’re going to be moving fast.”

The 15-member Select Committee on Property Tax Reform has been busy for the last few weeks analyzing the topic, which has spun off three referendums so far and continues to dominate attention in the Capitol.

The specially appointed panel met in three subcommittees Monday to take up critical components of the package – school funding, spending caps and tax relief – before reconvening to assess progress.

On Friday, attention shifts to the budget as the Democratic governor presents his spending recommendations for the next two-year cycle. Baldacci’s budget must account for a revenue gap in excess of $730 million, and he has pledged not to raise taxes to close it.

With public hearings on the budget getting under way later this month, and Baldacci’s State of the State speech scheduled for Jan. 25, a more complete picture of the session’s themes should emerge, said Senate President Beth Edmonds, D-Freeport.

Both leaders say one priority will be to agree on an economic development bond issue, which failed to win consensus in the closing hours of last year’s session. Richardson said the bond package should go to voters in June and can’t wait until next fall.

Bond packages to continue Maine’s open space preservation program will also be proposed.

Individual lawmakers, with priorities of their own spanning a broad range of other topics, have submitted more than 2,100 bills that must be dealt with during the six-month session. In at least one case, a lawmaker is sponsoring a bill he strenuously opposes.

Rep. Brian Duprey, R-Hampden, introduced legislation to legalize same-sex marriage at the request of a constituent.

“Since I am my constituent’s voice in the Legislature I felt compelled to sponsor the legislation, but I will not change my beliefs and will work hard to try defeat the legislation,” said Duprey.

Duprey is sponsoring a separate bill calling for a constitutional amendment that would define marriage as a union of one man and one woman, and allow for the state to not recognize same sex marriages performed in other states.

Bills appearing in title form only run the gamut from increasing college scholarships to allowing vanity license plates on school buses, requiring background checks for camp counselors, and banning the sale of toys and novelties containing mercury.

Other bills seek to allow specialty license plates for members of the National Rifle Association, and specialty “Choose Life” and “Protect Choice” license plates. A bill would require school buses to use 20 percent biodiesel fuel and another would require more retail stores to make bathrooms available to the public.

AP-ES-01-03-05 1720EST