AUGUSTA

The House on Tuesday unanimously approved a measure that reauthorized $6.5 million in voter approved Land for Maine’s Future bonds as part of a bipartisan effort to revive the expired bonds.

The bonds expired in November when Gov. Paul LePage refused to issue them.

Last week, both the House and Senate voted unanimously to reauthorize the LMF bonds. An amendment from Rep. Martin Grohman, D-Biddeford, also stripped the original text of the bill, LD 1454, and replaced it with a five-year reauthorization of bonds approved by voters in 2010.

“Today was a win for voters, outdoorsmen and women, outdoor recreation businesses and other Mainers who recognize the importance of Land for Maine’s Future to our economy — particularly for rural Maine,” said House Majority Leader Jeff McCabe, DSkowhegan, in a press release on Tuesday. “It will be great to see these voter approved bonds released and preserving land for recreation and waterfront, forestry and farming jobs.”

Gov. Paul LePage had withheld the bonds and criticized the conservation program, but then said he would issue the $6.5 million if legislators renewed them. The Maine House of Representatives voted 145-0 to give its final approval to the reauthorization on Tuesday. The matter will now go to the Maine Senate.

LePage called the Land For Maine’s Future bond program a giveaway that benefits wealthy landowners and an improper use of Maine tax money. He then released $5 million in bonds, though the expired bonds that voters approved in 2010 amounted to another $6.5 million.

The bonds pay for open space preservation.

The bill will face further action in the Senate.