After the Legislature on Wednesday passed a hefty bill to finance state construction projects, Gov. Tim Pawlenty has a choice.

He can either "chop or liquefy," House Minority Leader Marty Seifert, R-Marshall, said during the floor debate.

The bill authorizes the state to borrow $925 million to finance public works projects, and Pawlenty has said it's too much.

So he can either use his line-item veto power to "chop" individual projects from the bill, or he can "liquefy" it by vetoing the entire bill. The latter would force lawmakers to craft another version of what is arguably the most important bill of the session.

The Democratic-controlled Legislature passed the bonding bill despite the Republican governor's veto threat. It flew through the House on a 90-42 vote and cleared the Senate, 57-10.

That would be enough votes to override a veto, but Republican legislative leaders said most GOP lawmakers who voted for the bill would reverse themselves and vote to sustain a Pawlenty veto.

The bill would pay for college classrooms and research labs, flood-control projects and water and sewer systems, rail and bus transit lines, parks and trails, hockey arenas and zoo exhibits.

Pawlenty contends the measure spends more than the $825 million allowed under a guideline that limits debt service payments to 3 percent of the state's general fund.

On Tuesday, he called the bill fiscally irresponsible. But he said he would carefully review it before taking action.

The bill's chief House sponsor, Rep. Alice Hausman, DFL-St. Paul, said lawmakers found a way to spend more and "not break the 3 percent guideline" by spreading out bond sales over a longer period of time.

More important, Hausman said, "this bill will put people to work immediately." Although she didn't put a number on it, she said it would create jobs for thousands of construction workers at a slow time for builders.

She noted that legislative negotiators had pared nearly $4 billion in requests to less than $1 billion for the most essential and beneficial projects.

But Seifert, citing the hockey rinks, theaters and zoo exhibits in the bill, said it also was loaded up with a "massive amount of pork."

During a four-hour House debate, Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Delano, warned that the bill would "leave an enormous and unreasonable debt on future generations and future legislatures."

There were fewer disputes during a half-hour Senate debate. Sen. Geoff Michel, R-Edina, said lawmakers were playing a "game of chicken with the governor" by going over the spending limits.

"We have to show some restraint. In a recession, we have to say no," he said.

But the bill's chief Senate sponsor, DFLer Keith Langseth of Glyndon, said the administration's debt service numbers have consistently been wrong, and legislators would not top the 3 percent limit even if they spent $925 million.

The most important reason to vote for the bill, he said, is it authorizes the University of Minnesota to borrow $233 million to build four biomedical research laboratories in the next eight years. The state would pay 75 percent of the debt service costs.

That would enable the U to "go out into the scientific community around the world and recruit the very best talent they could get" to promote medical breakthroughs and create new businesses and jobs, he said.

"I think this is far and away the most important legislation that we have had before us maybe during the time I've been in the Legislature," said Langseth, a 34-year legislative veteran.

WHAT'S IN THE BILL

Gov. Tim Pawlenty has said he might veto the nearly $1 billion public works projects bill passed Wednesday by the House and Senate, saying it's too expensive.

What's at risk? Here are some of the major projects funded in the bill:

University of Minnesota — $131.2 million

U science classroom and student services building, Minneapolis — $48.3 million

Bell Museum of Natural History, St. Paul — $24 million

Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system — $280.9 million

Department of Natural Resources — $104.8 million

Faribault state prison expansion — $16 million

Duluth convention center and hockey arena — $38 million

Bemidji event center and hockey arena —$20 million

Crookston ice arena — $10 million

St. Cloud State National Hockey Center — $6.5 million

Itasca County steel plant infrastructure — $28 million

Here are some east metro area projects in the bonding bill:

Century College classroom renovation — $7.9 million

Inver Hills Community College classroom addition — $13.2 million

Metropolitan State University classroom center — $5 million

St. Paul College transportation and technology labs — $13.5 million

Closed landfill cleanup (including Washington County) — $25 million

State Capitol restoration — $13.4 million

Chicago-St. Paul high-speed rail — $4 million

Cedar Avenue bus rapid transit — $4 million

Central Corridor light-rail transit — $70 million

St. Paul Union Depot — $2 million

Como Zoo — $11 million

St. Paul National Great River Park — $5.8 million

St. Paul Asian-Pacific Cultural Center — $5 million

Anoka County forensic crime lab — $3 million