AUGUSTA – To tax or not to tax?

That is the question members of the Maine House will answer Monday when they return to work to decide the fate of competing Part 2 budget proposals.

Shortly after 4 a.m. Friday, the Appropriations Committee returned a majority report endorsed by nine members who favored a $75 million budget that would draw much of its revenue from a pair of new taxes. In contrast, four House Republicans on the committee chose to support a substantially leaner $60 million budget that contains no new taxes, fewer state services and a leaner bureaucracy.

The final version of the budget will depend on a series of votes in the House and Senate that should get under way Monday. Legislative leaders hope to adjourn Wednesday unless the Legislature’s inability to complete its work forces an extension of the session.

“It’s not a bad budget,” said Sen. Jill Goldthwait, the Bar Harbor independent who serves as co-chairman of the Appropriations Committee. “It’s not glamorous stuff with all its infrastructure maintenance, but we did fund the domestic violence bill and increase funding for research and development. These are good things that are important for the state.”

A significant sticking point in the majority budget report is the committee’s decision to raise about $4.6 million by implementing a 2 percent increase in the food and lodging tax on Aug. 1 and a 20 cent increase to the state cigarette tax effective Sept. 1. Ordinarily, a bill does not become law until 90 days after the Legislature adjourns. Assuming the current session ends on or before June 30, the first full month that any approved bills could become law would begin Oct. 1.

That’s too late for supporters of the majority report and to resolve that problem, an emergency preamble was attached to the measure allowing the bill to become law upon receiving the governor’s signature. Emergency measures like the majority budget require supermajority legislative support; 101 votes in the House and 24 in the Senate.

Consisting of 17 Republicans, 17 Democrats and one independent, the Senate appeared poised to back the majority report Friday with at least 24 votes. But the measure’s outcome in the House was anything but certain. Democrats hold 89 seats in the House while Republicans represent 61 districts. There is also one independent member. Assuming every Democrat voted for the majority budget, they would still need at least 12 additional votes to reach the minimal 101-vote threshold for two-thirds approval.

House Republican Leader Joseph Bruno of Raymond predicted Friday that proponents of the majority budget would never see 101 votes. Although Bruno supported the $5.2 billion Part 1 budget passed last month to keep state government running for the next two years, many members of his caucus did not.

Some of the House Republicans who went along with the Part 1 did so in the hope that they would be given a greater role in deciding priority issues in the Part 2 budget, which is normally reserved for new and expanded programs. Bruno said those expectations weren’t realized and that instead, Republicans were handed a majority budget that contains about $60 million in new taxes with the remainder of about $15 million funded through lapsed balances in state accounts and other small revenue sources.

“We’re going to stick together on this, we don’t think we need to raise taxes and from our look at the numbers, we think we can do everything that absolutely has to get done for Part 2 without raising taxes and that’s what our budget does,” he said.

If House Republicans choose to stand on principle, it may only be a minor setback for the majority report which can be passed with a simple majority vote in both houses. In that event, budget writers would have to regroup to address the estimated $4.6 million that would be lost by delaying the implementation of the two new taxes until Oct. 1.

House Speaker Michael Saxl, D-Portland, said funding for such initiatives as the domestic violence bill and the biomedical research and development bill could be adversely affected without the inclusion of the $4.6 million in tax revenues. He urged House Republicans to support the majority report and refused Friday to even consider a fallback position in the event efforts to obtain a supermajority fail.

“I’m not prepared to even go there yet, we’re going to get [the 101 votes],” he said.

One thing that supporters like Saxl won’t have to worry about is opposition to the majority report from Gov. Angus S. King, who said Friday afternoon that he would back the proposal, eliminating any prospect of a veto.

“I think the committee and leadership did an excellent job in reconciling significant differences and acted responsibly,” King said. “It’s a budget that I can sign, It’s not exactly what I would have proposed, but that is never going to be the case. It remains to be seen whether it will get two-thirds support. We’re hoping that it does.”