AUGUSTA (AP) – Legislative leaders, looking to give rank-and-file lawmakers a heads-up before releasing details, on Tuesday declined to describe a tentative deal on new state borrowing that appeared to be worth about $83 million, according to interviews with people within the Legislature, the State House lobby and the Baldacci administration.

Despite the decision by legislative leaders to defer detailed comment, the contents of the proposed package began to circulate in state government circles.

People involved in the negotiations or briefed on the outcome said the largest component of the package was a transportation piece worth about $36 million.

Another piece categorized as jobs-related could be worth about $20 million, administration officials said they believed. Smaller amounts would be left for environmental and education projects.

The agreement struck Monday night by members of the Democratic and Republican leadership teams in the Senate and House of Representatives is to be put before party caucuses for comment next Monday.

If warranted by reaction in the caucuses, the Appropriations Committee would then be called in to fine-tune elements of the package for presentation to the full Legislature, most likely on July 29.

Following the agreement Monday night, House and Senate leaders released a joint statement.

“We reached agreement on a bond proposal that will ensure our state’s investments in the areas of job creation, transportation, environment and health, and education. The Appropriations Committee will meet next week to prepare the final package, which will be presented to the full Legislature during the special session,” the statement said.

On Tuesday, individual leaders did not offer much more.

“We just felt it was important and fair” to rank-and-file lawmakers to delay the release of details of any tentative accord, said Senate Majority Leader Michael Brennan, D-Portland.

“And, again, this is just leadership agreeing,” he added.

House Minority Leader David Bowles, R-Sanford, spoke similarly of extending a courtesy to other lawmakers by trying to allow them to hear details first from their leaders.

Bowles said some pieces of the package had yet to be completed – with overall sums set but specific projects not listed – and would probably be turned over to the Appropriations panel for additional work.

“There’s only a couple of those items,” he said.

Like Brennan, Bowles noted that “leadership is only part of the equation.”

Passing a bond package to put before voters would require super majorities of two-thirds in the House and Senate, so some level of bipartisan cooperation would be needed.

Democrats hold narrow majorities in both the House and Senate.

Monday’s session was the third such meeting since the Legislature adjourned last month.

Democrats had suggested that earlier talks had produced a tentative ceiling on aggregate new bonding of about $100 million and they pegged the Republican negotiators’ preference at somewhere around $75 million.

Major items under discussion have been said to include public land acquisition, highways and support for research and development.

In February, Gov. John Baldacci outlined a proposed package worth $197 million with major provisions including $50 million for land acquisition and conservation, nearly $28 million for highways and bridges and $22 million for a statewide biomedical research and development fund.

Disputes over borrowing hamstrung the previous Legislature. Majority Democrats won only one Republican vote on the Appropriations Committee last August for a $40 million package.

Senate President Beth Edmonds suggested Tuesday that some agreement was better than none.

Edmonds said she could not address the overall size of the borrowing package that leaders had settled on, but did say that one subject not mentioned directly in the leaders’ joint statement – public land acquisition – had made the cut.

“It’s in there,” she said.