AUGUSTA (AP) – Gov. John Baldacci on Wednesday summoned the Legislature into session later this week to take up an $83 million bond package, whose passage appeared to be all but assured following a unanimous committee vote of support and endorsement by both parties’ leaders.

“I’m generally pleased by the bipartisan agreement reached by the Appropriations Committee,” Baldacci said after the panel’s 12-0 vote early Wednesday morning. One committee member was absent.

The Democratic governor also acknowledged the intense negotiations that grew from the competing demands for bond money, saying, “I know that it was difficult.” His office prepared a proclamation formally summoning lawmakers to act on the bonds and a number of routine judicial appointments on Friday.

Legislative passage by two-thirds majority votes will send the bond package to Maine voters in November. The $83 million in state borrowing would leverage $225 million in matching funds, Senate Democratic leaders said.

Legislative leaders said the bond bill is similar to one they had agreed to in principle earlier this month. Since then, some lawmakers and groups that stand to benefit from the various components pressed for larger shares of the overall package, which is less than half of the $197 million package Baldacci had advanced last February.

The bill that emerged from the Appropriations panel includes $33.1 million for transportation projects, $20 million for economic development and jobs, $9 million for education, $12 million for land conservation and the working waterfront initiative, and $8.9 million for clean water, environment and health projects.

While the package will go before the House and Senate as one proposal, it would go to voters in five separate questions.

The committee’s final action drew matching plaudits from partisan leaders. They also noted that the final package includes some proposals that had been left out of earlier negotiations, such as $2 million for working waterfront protection and increased funding for agricultural projects.

“These funds will help to protect access for our vital commercial fisheries,” said House Majority Leader Glenn Cummings, D-Portland.

His GOP counterpart, Minority Leader David Bowles of Sanford, said, “Both sides worked very hard to come up with a bond proposal that is both fiscally responsible and makes critical investments in highway, water and sewer infrastructure, higher education and jobs and research.”

House Speaker John Richardson said at a news conference at the University of New England that he anticipates strong bipartisan support for the economic development bond on Friday. Passage by voters would benefit a new biomedical research facility at UNE’S Biddeford campus.

Richardson said the time is right to boost Maine’s biomedical industry, part of “a new kind of economic infrastructure.”

“We cannot afford not to make this investment in our future,” added Richardson, noting that Maine lost 23 percent of its manufacturing jobs between 2000 and 2004, while the number of people employed in the biomedical industry grew by nearly 44 percent.

On Thursday, Maine Senate President Beth Edmonds, D-Freeport, is to join other lawmakers in Greene in support of another component of the bond package, a $1 million bond package proposal for the New Century Community grant program, which provides seed money for arts, preservation and library projects in Maine communities. The final figure is half of what had been proposed earlier for New Century.