AUGUSTA – The Maine Legislature sent a $5.2 billion, two-year state budget to the governor’s office Friday, clearing the way for contentious debate over new spending priorities in a second round of voting next month.

Gov. Angus S. King is expected to sign the Part 1 budget bill next Tuesday when lawmakers return from the Memorial Day break. With Friday’s 105-39 vote in the House and a 32-0 vote in the Senate, the Part 1 budget received the supermajority support needed for final enactment.

The budget package continues state spending for current services and also provided a 5 percent increase worth about $33 million for local educational reimbursement in the budget’s first fiscal year. The Legislature withdrew $20 million from the $50 million Maine School Technology Fund – better known as the governor’s laptop fund- for other spending priorities. Lawmakers transferred $35.5 million from the Rainy Day Fund to cover unexpected Medicaid cost increases, leaving that fund at about $115 million.

Other spending priorities in the Part 1 budget included closing 14 of the remaining 27 state liquor stores, providing a 3 percent cost-of-living allowance to nursing home employees and a 2.5 percent wage increase for mental health care workers. The University of Maine System received a 4.2 percent increase, while the Maine Technical College System received a 4 percent increase in fiscal year 2002.

But major spending priorities still remain unresolved. King said Friday that while lawmakers rejected his plans for increasing the cigarette tax and the food and lodging tax for the Part 1 budget, they will be more likely to accept new taxes when debating the Part 2 budget.

Big ticket items like $15 million for collective bargaining, and an estimated $6 million to carry out provisions of the court-ordered Augusta Mental Health Institute consent decree must be addressed in the Part 2 budget. The Legislature has reserved about $760,000 for the Part 2 budget requests, which King said could easily exceed $60 million for “must have” spending priorities. The tax increases proposed by the governor would raise an estimated $68.5 million.

Whether there will be additional funding for education must also be addressed in Part 2 of the budget. Legislative leaders and King would like to add a 3 percent increase for educational reimbursement in the budget’s second fiscal year to provide about $18 million more for Maine cities and towns.

It was legislative leadership’s failure to pay for that 3 percent increase in the budget’s second fiscal year that angered House Republicans Thursday night, when a 90-55 preliminary vote on the budget failed to reach the 101 needed for enactment. Only 11 of 61 Republicans supported the bill while 9 Democrats also voted against the budget.

Prior to Friday’s vote, Rep. Thomas Murphy, R-Kennebunk, continued his assault on the budget compromise that left the question of future increases for local education and higher education unanswered.

“The second year GPA [local educational reimbursement] that we heard referenced at 3 percent should also include higher education,” he said. “To get an overwhelming vote on the document that’s before us [Part 1], all you need to do is amend it and take GPA to 3 percent and higher education to 3 percent in the second year. [Under Part 2] we don’t know what GPA is and we don’t know what the revenues are or what tax increases will be offered.”

But Rep. David M. Etnier, D-Harpswell, urged his seatmates to move forward and recognize all of the positive goals that would be accomplished by passing the compromise budget plan negotiated by House and Senate leadership.

“There comes a time when it is time to cease the grandstanding and political posturing and to move forward for what is best for the state as a whole, what is best for this institution as a whole and what is best for the many hardworking employees of the state government and what is best for the thousands of Mainers who depend on the services provided by our government,” he said.

Ultimately, 10 Republicans and five Democrats who opposed the budget in the House Thursday joined the bill’s backers Friday to give the measure four more votes than needed for two-thirds support.

House Speaker Michael V. Saxl, D-Portland, said both sides made good and compelling points during the floor debate and provided a budget that continued increases for education, drugs for the elderly and preserved property-tax relief measures like the Homestead Exemption.

“There were compelling points made on both sides of this debate,” he said.

In the Senate, where an earlier budget proposal recommended by the Appropriations Committee and passed by the House was gutted and reworked, Sen. Jill Goldthwait, a Bar Harbor independent, finally gave the bill her vote of approval. But not because she necessarily thought it was the best the Legislature could do.

“I voted for it out of respect for my colleagues on the Appropriations Committee,” said the chairwoman of the committee. “I’m really worried now because of people’s expectations for everything we’re going to fix in the Part 2. If we agreed to both of the new taxes [proposed by the governor], it’s not enough to cover that budget.”

King echoed Goldthwait’s concerns. An ever-increasing wish list of bills with hefty fiscal notes from anxious lawmakers in addition to priority state spending requests prompted the governor to join legislative leaders Friday in agreeing on a need for new taxes to pay for those costs.

“I think most people here realize there is a necessity for some tax increases in a limited way – like the cigarette tax,” King said of the proposal he unveiled five months ago.

Despite the politics involved in securing the compromise Part 1 budget and the daunting challenges the Legislature will face as it prepares to take on the Part 2 requests, Senate President Michael Michaud, D-East Millinocket, said the process had been worth it.

“I think that what we have is a good document,” Michaud said. “We had a lot of good input from the Appropriations Committee. Everyone’s worked real hard in both caucuses and in both chambers to pass a good budget.”