AUGUSTA (AP) – Maine lawmakers were offered an extended holiday weekend to look at the lengthy and complicated general fund budget package that the Appropriations Committee has forwarded to the full Legislature for voting.

The measure was posted online Friday morning. House and Senate members will have until Tuesday morning at 10 a.m. to file requests for amendments.

The $5.8 billion rewrite of Gov. John Baldacci’s original proposal won unanimous support on the bipartisan Appropriations panel. Supermajorities of two-thirds or better in both the House and Senate will be needed for passage.

Meanwhile, with just weeks left in this year’s regular legislative session, lawmakers have reopened talks on a tax code overhaul.

The Legislature’s Taxation Committee expects to get estimates this week on the potential impact of broadening the sales tax and reducing the income tax.

The chief advocate of a major tax code change, Democratic House floor leader John Piotti of Unity, appeared before the Taxation Committee last week to update members on his plan.

Lawmakers are scheduled to wrap up this year’s session by mid-June.

“We don’t know yet how many other things we have coming,” said Senate Republican floor leader Kevin Raye of Perry. But he said he believed lawmakers were well positioned to complete their chores a little early.

Also in the area of taxes, the Legislature’s Transportation Committee is thinking of moving away from tying fuel taxes to inflation.

Under consideration is a plan that could add 11 cents a gallon to fuel taxes over four years.

Panelists said last week such a tax hike might be a tough sell but that highway maintenance is a top priority.

Senate Chairman Dennis Damon, a Democrat from Trenton, said he thought Gov. John Baldacci might be amenable if broad support for a tax-hike plan can be demonstrated.

Raye said another high priority debate to be taken up would be over new state borrowing.

Baldacci has proposed a $306 million state borrowing package that would be submitted to voters in two elections and spent over three years.

Last week, Maine Treasurer David Lemoine said state officials had been informed that two Wall Street rating agencies were reaffirming Maine’s bond rating.

The reviews by Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s Investors Service come in advance of the planned issuance of $141 million in general obligation bonds on June 1, Lemoine said.

Lawmakers have also been considering an energy bill that includes a provision that would effectively prohibit new energy corridor development in Maine until a special commission conducts a study.