Associated Press Writer

SALEM - A politically sticky bill authorizing $10 million to upgrade the North Bend airport was placed in a holding pattern Tuesday when the Republican-controlled House refused to go along with Senate changes in the bill.

On a 33-26 vote, the House shipped the measure to a House-Senate negotiating panel that will try to work out a compromise.

"The manuevering has just begun on this bill," said Rep. Bill Garrard, R-Klamath Falls, after the House sent the bill to the bargaining panel.

Supporters of the airport expansion say it is needed because of the popularity of the new Bandon Dunes golf courses to the south. Visitors to the resort have sharply increased private plane traffic into North Bend.

Along with the similarly-worded Senate Bill 152 - unanimously adopted by the Senate in June - House Bill 2537 won unanimous approval last week in the Senate. Both airport bills have gotten hung up in the House in a power struggle over school funding.

House Majority Leader Wayne Scott of Canby had vowed to block the bill because Democratic Rep. Arnie Roblan of Coos Bay some weeks ago refused to back away from efforts to force a vote on a bigger K-12 school appropriation than favored by the GOP caucus.

Oregon's top two House Republican leaders, House Speaker Karen Minnis, R-Wood Village, and Rep. Wayne Scott, R-Canby, toured the airport Friday. Scott stopped short of saying he would vote in support of the bill, but said the bill would have top priority in the House.

"We're going to continue to evaluate it and work hard to see what we can do in negotiations with the Senate," Scott said at the time.

And that's where the bill remains.

Sen. Joanne Verger, D-Coos Bay, who is the chief sponsor of the airport bill, said Tuesday she was extremely disappointed by the stall in the House.

"Perhaps playing partisan politics comes before doing what is best for Oregon and that's a shame," she wrote in a press release.

Disappointment aside, Verger said the bill received overwhelming bipartisan support in the Senate and negotiations with the House would continue.

Garrard, after Tuesday's vote, said he supports efforts to upgrade the North Bend airport. But he said House members have questions about Senate additions to the bill, including one to make it easier for private companies to develop rural airports.

"It's a passable bill, but it needs more polishing, more study," he said.

The bill authorizes $10 million in lottery-backed bonds as the state's share of the project that's budgeted at $32 million, counting federal and local funds.

Verger, said that despite Tuesday's House manuever she believes the Legislature will give final approval to the airport upgrade before the 2005 session adjourns.

"There's tremendous support for this bill in the House and the Senate," she said. "I think this bill or something like it will prevail."

The original bill, SB152, remains in the House State and Federal Affairs Committee chaired by Rep. Wayne Krieger, R-Gold Beach.

- The World staff contributed to this story.