The Legislature this week is expected to approve a $295 million bond package, which is $100 million less than what the governor requested, but still the largest bond proposal in recent memory.

The Appropriations Committee voted 12 to 1 to recommend the full package on Sunday, indicating strong support from leadership in both parties. General obligation bonds require a two-thirds vote of the Legislature and then must be sent out to the people on a statewide ballot.

The biggest ticket item in the package is $136 million for transportation projects. A similar amount was requested by Gov. John Baldacci in his package presented last month.

The biggest cut from the governor’s plan is in research and development investment. Baldacci had asked for $131 million, and the committee’s bipartisan plan calls for $55 million.

“The $55 million proposed is an important installment in our efforts to create sustainable, private-sector jobs with good pay and good benefits,” Baldaccci said of the pared-down research and development proposal. “I think about where the Legislature was when this discussion started. There was a great distance between Democrats and Republicans. Now there is a common understanding that we must invest not only in asphalt and gravel, but also in the underpinnings of the economy of tomorrow,” Baldacci said in a prepared statement.

The package overall includes:

• $136 million for transportation projects, including $110 million for road and bridge repair and another $26 million for other transportation projects, including passenger and freight rail.

• $55 million for research and development, $50 million of which will be distributed in a competitive process through the Maine Technology Institute.

• $43.5 million for capital improvements at Maine’s public colleges and universities, including $15.5 million for community colleges, $23 million for the University of Maine System, $1.5 million for the Maine Maritime Academy, $1.5 million for the school revolving loan fund and $2 million to the New Century Community Fund to support the creative economy.

• $35.5 million for natural resources, including $17 million for Land for Maine’s Future; $3 million for Working Waterfront; $5 million for rivers; $7.5 million for state parks; $1.5 for Municipal Investment Trust; and $1.5 million for agricultural irrigation.

• $25 million, to cover drinking water upgrades, hazardous material cleanup, waste water construction grants, air monitoring equipment, municipal landfills, industrial landfills and dam and hatchery repair.

Under the proposal, the Legislature would send clusters of bond questions to Maine voters in three upcoming statewide elections. Transportation bonds of $113 million and environmental bonds of $18.3 million would be put on the ballot in June. The $43.5 million capital bond for education, $55 million for research and development, and $35.5 million for natural resources will be on the ballot in November. And, the remaining $23 million for transportation and $6.7 million for environment will be on the ballot in November of 2008.

The Appropriations Committee had rushed to get the bond package ready for this week in order to meet the deadlines to get absentee ballots out for the June election.

It now will return to the work of putting together a two-year state budget, which includes a controversial school consolidation plan and a $1 hike in the cigarette tax. The committee just learned last week it also has to fill a $74 million hole left by lower-than-anticipated corporate income tax collections.

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