AUGUSTA – An adage around the State House is that no legislation is really ever dead. A proposal to provide a bond issue to help pay for the replacement of the Bangor Auditorium and Civic Center is a good example, with the concept having more lives than a cat.

Several bond proposals have been floated in two different committees and debated on the floor of both House and Senate as alternatives to a local option sales tax to help pay for a $30 million replacement facility for the civic center complex.

Bangor officials have said the city cannot afford to pay for the replacement with local revenues alone.

The latest proposal was introduced Tuesday during floor debate in the House, when Rep. Stavros Mendros, R-Lewiston, called for a $5 million addition to the $34 million economic development bond bill. His attempt failed by a vote of 101 to 33.

“We finally knew it was time to fold ’em,” said Sen. Tom Sawyer, R-Bangor. “We kept trying, but the votes were just not there. We did try quite a few times, didn’t we?”

Sawyer said he decided against submitting a similar amendment in the Senate to the one proposed by Mendros in the House.

“We have had plenty of economic development packages that have gone through to help southern Maine,” he said. “Northern Maine needs something. We can do all the little tricks and pork here, there and everywhere and boost up other areas of northern Maine, but it’s not going to do any good without Bangor thriving.”

Mendros believes Bangor is the key to economic development for the northern half of the state. He said it needs a modern auditorium and civic center to help with expansion.

Rep. Joseph Perry, D-Bangor, agreed. He had tried to add a $10 million bond to the package earlier in the process, without success.

“I think this is as worthy as almost anything else in this package,” he said.

Opponents successfully argued, as they did on previous proposals, that adding money for the Bangor project would increase the overall size of the borrowing package to a point where it would result in loss of support.

A bond proposal takes a two-thirds vote of those members present and voting in each chamber to go to the voters for their consideration.

The House had supported a $15 million bond for the auditorium project earlier this month by more than two-thirds, but the bill was defeated in the Senate. Rep. Brian Duprey, R-Hampden, had pushed that proposal, arguing the regional importance of the civic center.

During closed-door talks between legislative leaders and members of the Appropriations Committee, it was clear the proposal did not have the support to be included in the overall package.

Sen. Peter Mills, R-Cornville, a member of the Appropriations Committee, said it was never given “serious consideration” in any of the closed meetings that set the funding priorities.

“It really didn’t have much support,” he said.

House Speaker Michael Saxl, D-Portland, agreed, saying he supported a bond, but was nearly alone among the negotiators.

“We will be back next year,” Sawyer. “Whether a bond or the local option, we will be back next year when there is a new Legislature and a new governor. We have to solve this problem.”