Mainers could vote on whether to change the state flag under a proposal advanced Tuesday by the Legislature's budget committee.
The original proposal would change the current design, adopted in 1909, to the original version from 1901 featuring a pine tree and a blue star.
But after lawmakers repeatedly squabbled this session over which version of the flag best represented the state, they eventually settled on an amendment that lets voters decide.
Changing the flag would result in some costs, although the Secretary of State has said those expenses could be absorbed in existing resources.
So the budget committee on Tuesday removed the bill from a long list of proposals requiring funding, effectively sending it to the Senate for final approval.
The panel acted on more than two dozen other bills, but never returned from a dinner break it took in the early evening, as members continued to negotiate the fate of more than 200 other proposals out of public view.
