AUGUSTA – The Democratic presiding officers of the Legislature shifted gears Wednesday, saying plans for accelerated budget deliberations would have to be matched by fast-track talks on state borrowing. Senate Republicans sought to start the discussion at $200 million.

Senate President Beth Edmonds, D-Freeport, and House Speaker Glenn Cummings, D-Portland, said decisions on bonds would be needed by April 2 to allow time for borrowing proposals to be prepared for a June ballot.

Senate Minority Leader Carol Weston, R-Montville, said Republicans would want what they called a separate infrastructure bond to be divided between $180 million for roads and bridges and $20 million for sewer systems and water quality projects.

But in outlining a GOP position, Weston and Assistant Senate Minority Leader Richard Rosen, R-Bucksport, indicated that splitting such a borrowing plan between referendum votes in June and November was possible.

Cummings, meanwhile, said Democrats could be looking for agreements on bond votes for both June and November of this year and June and November of 2008.

Neither he nor Edmonds specified a number.

The legislative leaders said they had only just learned that action by early April was needed to send out any bond package for voter consideration in June.

To date, still awaiting a proposal from Gov. John Baldacci, the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee has received proposals for more than $1.2 billion in new General Fund borrowing, although that figure includes much duplication from among various bills. Another $60 million for transportation projects is listed as a Highway Fund bond.

A bipartisan leadership meeting expected to include a discussion of bonds was put off because of scheduling difficulties Wednesday. But some back and forth began, intensifying when Weston’s office put out a statement decrying past bond negotiations.

“Republicans will not allow necessary infrastructure bonding to take a back seat to negotiations over a laundry list of secondary bond proposals,” Weston said in the statement.

Cummings responded sharply, suggesting that higher education and other potential beneficiaries of bonding would not be broadly regarded as low priorities.

“I’m very disappointed at the bitter partisanship that we’ve seen coming out of the Senate Republican office,” he added.

Weston said later her main interest procedurally was to promote openness in negotiations.

“I just want it to be more transparent,” she said.

At one time, Democrats had suggested budget voting could come around the end of this month, although more recently Appropriations Committee leaders have suggested mid-April might be the target. Edmonds said Wednesday there might well be overlap between talks on a budget and on borrowing.

During a similar time period, she said, “we need to have major agreements on the key pieces.”

Public hearings on bonds before the Appropriations Committee would be held March 26-28, according to Cummings and Edmonds.

On Thursday, the House and Senate are expected to take up an order to create a new 15-member Committee on Prosperity, whose purpose would be to “develop a comprehensive plan to achieve sustainable prosperity in Maine.”

The new committee would submit initial findings and recommendations to the full Legislature by May 14.

Specified topics for inclusion in a plan range from investments in public lands to spending limitations on government, and from taxes and efficiencies to research and development.

The joint order would direct the committee to review a number of reports, including one by the Brookings Institution, another by the Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability and another by the Council on Jobs, Innovation and the Economy.

Committee members would include four senators and 11 state representatives.