AUGUSTA – The governor’s proposal to pay more toward overdue hospital bills will help MaineGeneral Medical Center’s bottom line, its top executive said.

The hospital is owed a total of $30 million from the state, said Chuck Hays, MaineGeneral’s president and chief executive officer. “Overall, we always assumed the state would pay us,” he said. “It’s a huge benefit for us to get upwards of $25 million.”

As MaineGeneral seeks money to build a new hospital in north Augusta, Hays said, an influx of money will put the hospital in a better position to negotiate with the bonding company.

The new 192-bed regional hospital is designed to serve greater Augusta and Waterville from a site adjacent to the Harold Alfond Center for Cancer Care, near Exit 113 off Interstate 95.

The financing for the $320 million project — which includes $10 million for renovations at the Thayer Campus in Waterville – will come through the Maine Health and Higher Education Facilities Authority, which issues low-cost, tax-exempt bonds to finance construction and renovation of health care facilities and nonprofit colleges.

Gov. Paul LePage put $69.5 million for hospitals — for overdue payments dating to 2006 — into the budget he proposed Wednesday for the rest of this fiscal year.

The money would be combined with federal funds and bring a total of $248 million to 36 Maine hospitals.

According to the governor’s office, that would bring the hospital payments current to June 2009.