AUGUSTA – Gov. John Baldacci unveiled a three-year borrowing plan Monday that he predicted would spark economic growth by funneling nearly $400 million into transportation, higher education and the environment.

The governor is proposing that two separate bond packages be placed before voters this year. If approved by two-thirds of the Legislature, they would be the first major bond proposals presented to voters since 2004.

The first proposal, which would go on the June ballot, would earmark $151.1 million for transportation projects, including $100 million for improvements to Maine’s aging highways and bridges.

The second, larger bond package – valued at $246.3 million – would earmark more than $30 million for Maine’s public colleges and $45 million for research and development at the University of Maine.

Maine would borrow another $92.4 million for environmental and natural resource projects ranging from wastewater treatment plant upgrades and dam repair to land conservation and riverfront community revitalization.

Speaking to a room packed with representatives of groups that would benefit from the bond proposal, Baldacci pitched the borrowing plan as a fiscally responsible investment that will create jobs while helping preserve Maine’s “quality places.”

Under the governor’s plan, the state would borrow $397.5 million over three years. But because Maine will have retired $352 million worth of previous bonds by that time, the amount being borrowed will not increase substantially, Baldacci said.

Maine now ranks 33rd in the nation in debt per capita.

“My plan is aggressive, but it is affordable,” Baldacci said. “It takes careful measure of what we can do and what we need to do.”

Specific highlights of the governor’s bond proposal include:

. $80 million for research, development and business investment under the Governor’s Council on Jobs, Innovation and the Economy.

. $35 million for the Land for Maine’s Future program, which leverages matching funds to permanently protect farms, forests and open space.

. $31 million for infrastructure improvements on University of Maine System and community college campuses.

. $16.8 million for passenger and freight rail.

. $10 million for capital improvements to Maine’s state parks and historic sites.

. $2 million for child care facilities.

“I think it’s a responsible package and I look forward to bipartisan support for the package I have proposed,” Baldacci said.

The governor announced his bond proposal as legislative leaders try to fast-track work on the budget and the state’s borrowing priorities. Lawmakers would have to decide on a bond package by April 2 in order to get it onto the June ballot.

Last week, Republican leaders said the state should focus first on a bond package for transportation and water or sewer infrastructure before getting bogged down in debate on other, less urgent needs. They proposed borrowing $180 million for roads and bridges plus $20 million for sewer systems and water infrastructure.

Sen. Richard Rosen, a Bucksport Republican, said Monday that there is plenty of time left in the legislative session to discuss other borrowing priorities after transportation and infrastructure borrowing levels are settled, Rosen said.

“To try to complete everything that the governor has proposed in that short period of time is going to be a challenge,” Rosen said.

Several groups applauded the bond proposal as, at the very least, a good first step to addressing some of the state’s fiscal needs.

“I’m pleased that the governor and the Legislature have recognized that research and development is key to our economic future,” said Habib Dagher, director of UMaine’s Advanced Engineered Wood Composites Center.

Baldacci highlighted a recent research endeavor at Dagher’s center – portable ballistic panels to protect soldiers inside tents from mortars or other explosions – as an example of the type of cutting-edge products possible through public-private research partnerships.

Representatives of both The Nature Conservancy and the Natural Resources Council of Maine said they would like to see more bond money earmarked for the Land for Maine’s Future program.

The LMF program, which has helped conserve more than 440,000 acres during the past two decades, needs approximately $25 million a year to meet demand. Baldacci’s plan would allocate $35 million to the program over three years.

Tim Glidden, director of the LMF program, said there is certainly enough demand for more money. However, Glidden said he was pleased to see that the governor recommended multiple years of funding.

Voters approved the last LMF bond proposal, for $10 million, by a wide margin in November 2005.

“Funding those programs, especially LMF, year to year … makes it very difficult to plan,” Glidden said.

Any bond proposal needs to muster a two-thirds vote in the Legislature to be placed on the ballot. Lawmakers, meanwhile, have submitted more than $1.2 billion in borrowing requests, often for the same projects funded in the governor’s proposal.

While Baldacci recommended $5 million in bonds for riverfront community development projects, the Senate chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Democrat Peggy Rotundo of Lewiston, has introduced legislation seeking $25 million in river bonds.

Just last week, Senate President Beth Edmonds put forward a $40 million bond proposal that could pave the way for passenger rail service between Portland and Rockland.

House Speaker Glenn Cummings welcomed the governor’s proposal.

“We need to build a better foundation for the future in order to ensure progress, and that means the job creation bonds have be a top priority,” Cummings said in a statement. “The governor’s bond package lays out a strategy that invests in all of the infrastructure that drives a modern economy, and we think he has given the Legislature a tremendous plan to move Maine forward.”