Two days of negotiations in Augusta have produced a compromise borrowing plan to pay for state projects. The compromise reduces the original $85 million dollar plan to just under $58 million, and will be sent to the voters this June. In addition to providing nearly $25 million for highway improvements, the agreement also provides funding for the state's acquisition of an Aroostook County railroad that's been targeted for abandonment by its owners.

A three-way huddle among Gov. John Baldacci's staffers and Republican and Democratic legislative leaders has produced a borrowing plan that supporters say is expected to preserve and retain jobs in Maine.

"We really did have our focus in line, we really do want to do what's best for the people of Maine, and our number one goal in that is presenting and creating jobs," says state Sen. Bill Diamond, who worked over the weekend to help guide revisions to the new bond proposal that begins by reducing the original $85 million proposal down to $57.8 million.

Republicans held firm in the Senate to block the larger request last week, leaving Diamond and other Democrats with no choice but to find a compromise. Maine's bond proposals must have the support of two-thirds of the members in the House and Senate in order to be sent out to the voters.

Diamond said that the goal of job creation was never in dispute. "Truly this compromise, some will be wanting more, and some do want more, some want less, and some want something totally different. This bond package has been and is about jobs, everyone kept that as their focus. Creating jobs is what we really want to do with this package -- that was not a partisan matter, we just simply didn't agree on numbers."

One of the Democratic state senators who really did want more was Elizabeth Schnieder of Orono. But she says that, unlike others in the Legislature, she was never willing to walk from the bond negotiations empty handed.

"And though even I have huge disappointment in the size of this package, because I think the fiscally-responsible thing to do would have been to have a larger bond package, I fully put my support behind this package because it is the right thing to do for the people of this state. Zero is not an option for me," Schnieder says.

In addition to providing nearly $25 million for highway improvements, the bond agreement provides $7 million in new borrowing that will be coupled with a $7 million transfer from the state's Rainy Day Fund and $3 million in contributions from northern Maine companies to allow the state to acquire the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railroad for $17 million.

The money-losing line, which needs about $19 million in upgrades, has been a focal point of the bond discussions and has been described as a life-line to industries in northern Aroostook County that rely on the 233 miles of track. The current owner informed the state that it would abandon the line and sell the rails for scrap if the state was not interested in purchasing it.

"This is not a mandate to go buy that rail line," says state Sen. Peter Mills, a Cornville Republican, who voted to enact the amended bond package, but warned those who would be involved with the rail negotiations to keep their eyes open.

"That if the Department of Transportation and the chief executive cannot put together a multi-part deal, or series of deals, that provide for rehabilitation of the line and good marketable connections to Canadian National in the north and the rail lines to the south, that we as a state should be prepared to walk away from it, in spite of our emotional attachments," Mill says.

The Maine House enacted the bond bill by a vote of 102-44, and the Senate followed with a 30-5 vote. The governor is expected to sign the bill later today, the expected last day of the legislative session, and raise the dollar value from the total number of bond questions on the June and November ballots to just over $123 million.