BANGOR – What the state plans to do about its multimillion dollar transportation funding shortfall was among the discussion topics during a gathering Saturday of community leaders, state legislators, education and healthcare professionals and members of the region’s business community.

“We don’t solve the problems, but we put them on the table,” Arthur Comstock, a local banker who acts as moderator of the Hot Stove League, said during the meeting, which drew more than 30 people.

The decade-old discussion group is sponsored by the Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce’s governmental affairs committee. It meets three or four times a year when Legislature is in session.

The latest on transportation funding came in a briefing from Transportation Commissioner David Cole.

Late last year, Cole told lawmakers that several unexpected developments had converged, prompting a decision to defer $130 million in highway projects in about 100 Maine communities.

Reasons for the shortfall included: changes in the new federal transportation law that provide more money overall over the next five years, but later in the funding cycle than state officials anticipated; higher fuel costs; and a spike in costs for construction materials such as asphalt and steel because of the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of the hurricane season.

Another factor working against the state is that its 8,300 miles of road must be supported by a population of only 1.3 million residents, Cole noted.

The commissioner also said on Saturday that increased demand from China and India for building materials was driving costs up.

Noting that the funding cuts would affect needed road projects in about 100 Maine communities, Gov. John Baldacci has “said this was unacceptable,” Cole said. “The governor is committed to solving these problems.

The governor appointed a bipartisan working group to see if some of the projects can be restored.

“This is meat-and-potatoes stuff,” he said.

“There’s nothing particularly sexy about these projects,” Cole said, adding that trying to save money with temporary repairs would be “like putting frosting on a molding cake.”

Bangor City Manager Edward Barrett pointed out that the transportation funding problems don’t stop at the state level.

“If the state doesn’t do it that means we’re going to have to do it … so it has this ripple down effect,” he said.

The governor’s working group got cracking in December and on Jan. 31 issued its report and recommendations for dealing with the shortfall, which they pegged at $90 million, after $40 million is savings were found from projects that won’t be done in this budget biennium and from finding cheaper, simpler road fixes.

To close the $90 million gap, the group recommended a combination of shifted funding and borrowing that includes moving $15 million in unspent DOT personnel accounts and another $15 million from the state General Fund to capital accounts, and borrowing $60 million through a combination of bonding and funding from the federal Grant Anticipation Revenue Vehicle, or GARVEE, program.

The GARVEE program lets states borrow money against anticipated revenue from federal funds, gasoline taxes and other sources.

The Legislature’s transportation committee will take up the report and recommendations in the near future.

Bangor City Councilor Geoffrey Gratwick asked if the state planned to look to light rail as part of the transportation solution.

Cole said that could be tricky.

“The economics of it have to work,” Cole said. While it would be tough to use in more sparsely populated rural areas, “in key corridors it could work.”