The second part of Gov. Baldacci’s biennium budget, expected tomorrow, is not only a vehicle for meeting new state costs such as overdue payments to hospitals. It is a chance for Democrats and Republicans to try again to reduce the budget’s reliance on revenue bonds, which neither side likes.

Democrats should do this not merely because they acknowledge what the GOP insist they acknowledge ? that borrowing to pay for everyday expenses is not a good idea ? but because it is an excellent means to persuade the minority party to drop its support for the People’s Veto.

The veto is a citizen’s initiative that would rescind the borrowing portion of the budget ? $447 million, though the GOP objects to only $250 million of it. What else it would do to the budget, particularly between the start of the next fiscal year, July 1, and a vote on the issue, is not entirely clear. Republicans say it would do little to hurt the overall budget; Democrats claim Doomsday, or at least lower bond ratings, would befall Maine. The debate is over the extent of the immediate harm, and the important question is whether the two parties can resolve their differences over the budget by using Part 2 to reopen discussions on the loan plan in a responsible way.

Leaders in both parties say they are willing to do that ? under the right conditions. Democrats want Republicans to come forward with a plan for balancing the budget, with the provision that if cuts or spending restrictions are proposed by Republicans and those proposals are included in the budget, another set of demands won’t suddenly appear. They want Republicans to drop their support for the veto referendum.

House Republican leaders said this week they want three things from Democrats: an end to press conferences and similar activities that demand Republicans produce an alternative budget if they don’t like the current one; a promise to take GOP ideas to cut spending seriously and constructively; and an acknowledgment that, should those ideas be included, the unpopular decisions were made mutually and belong to both parties.

“If we can arrive at a reasonable compromise,” House Republican Leader David Bowles says, “there is no longer a necessity for a People’s Veto.”

Gov. Baldacci says he is agreeable to these requests. House Speaker John Richardson says, “All of that is possible,” but he wants specific proposals for budget savings from Republicans when they begin discussions.

The desires of both sides are legitimate and not necessarily in conflict. Legislative leaders by now are thoroughly familiar with each side’s positions, having debated them at length before Democrats passed Part 1 of the budget without Republican support. Now they need the Republicans, so the politics of the discussions changes. It creates an opportunity for a tighter budget and, more important, one that has bipartisan support.