Legislative leaders are considering a proposal to put laptops in the House and Senate for a cost of $550,000 to $640,000 - a plan Minority Leader Sen. Carol Weston says should be out of the question when state government has a $95 million budget hole to fill.

"The governor's taking $10,000 out of Special Olympics," to fill the hole, said Weston, R-Waldo. "I'm not spending $600,000 for laptops."

Weston was referring to Gov. John Baldacci's executive order issued on Tuesday that curtailed $38 million in spending, including $13.5 million in the Department of Health and Human Services. The Maine Special Olympics was part of that cut.

The laptop proposal currently before the Legislative Council, made up of House and Senate leaders from both parties, is to do a pilot project this coming session on the paperless system. The goal is to get rid of most of the paper bills and amendments used in the House and Senate by providing the information over laptops to the state's 186 legislators.

A vote on the pilot project was delayed until early January.

Proponents say the system would eventually pay for itself, in terms of reduced paper costs and the staff needed to hand it out, but Republican leadership isn't convinced.

And, while the pilot would cost just around $35,000, Weston said it is the proverbial foot in the door.

"It's like every other big project that costs too much. We don't want to face it," she said, so

it is phased in, with a "big whopping" bill due in the end.

Bids for the project came in last month and two vendors were selected out of five to continue discussions with the state and propose pilot projects.

The favored bidder, based on staff recommendations, is International Roll-Call (IRC). It would provide the software development, pilot and training, and the state would purchase or lease the laptops and buy the servers and other hardware. Depending on the purchase versus lease options, the total project would cost between $559,000 and $638,000.

House Speaker Glenn Cummings is a strong proponent of the project, saying Maine is one of eight or nine states that are not electronically connected in their chamber. The paper process wastes time and legislators are not always on the same page when it's time to vote on a bill.

Cummings has said the computers will not only save money on paper, but on two staffers, whose job is to hand things out. He has even predicted that sessions would end sooner, or at least on time, if legislators were not always waiting for paper amendments before they could take a vote.

It's estimated the Legislature spends $500,000 for every two-year session to print bills, amendments and calendars, but not all of that represents paper used by legislators. An issue that still needs to be resolved is how to handle the public's request for legislative paper.

Assistant Minority Leader Sen. Richard Rosen, R-Hancock, says the Statehouse already has a wireless Internet connection, and many legislators can and do use their own laptops to review bills and amendments on line. Rather than buying everyone their own laptop, he said, legislators could use some of their annual constituent allowance to purchase the machines. That annual allowance is $2,000 for senators and $1,500 for representatives.

While there was discussion earlier this year to purchase monitors versus laptops, those bidding on the project said laptops were the best way to go.