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ST. PAUL (AP) ― A retooled transportation spending plan with a new focus on Minnesota's worst bridges went straight to legislative committees for deliberations on Tuesday, an unusually fast pace for the first day of the session.

House and Senate Democrats unveiled the bill together, a sign of unity as they attempt to build support for an $8.4 billion package that would raise the state gas tax, add a metro sales tax for transit and increase vehicle tab fees for new car buyers.

A similar bill died last year after an attempt to override Gov. Tim Pawlenty's veto fell short. This year, sponsors hope public pressure after last year's fatal Interstate 35W bridge collapse will help them win over at least five Republican House members so the bill can become law over the GOP governor's objections.

"We're tired of being told no," said Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Steve Murphy, DFL-Red Wing. "This bill is about yes, let's build Minnesota."

Pawlenty, speaking Tuesday night to 1,500 members of the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, didn't directly address the transportation bill, but he left no doubt about how he'll act on bills that include tax increases.

"I don't want to have to do 55 vetoes again like I did last year, but if it comes to that so be it," he said. "The word is going to go out starting tomorrow: Do not send tax increases to my desk."

The governor also joked that he had a special veto tool he was calling "the taxpayer protection pen."

Both houses gaveled in shortly after noon for short meetings heavy on ceremony. House members heard a song about Minnesota's approaching 150th birthday. Senators paused to honor Leonid Hurwicz, a 90-year-old emeritus professor of economics at the University of Minnesota who was awarded a Nobel Prize last fall.

Four swing Republicans in the House indicated some flexibility on overriding Pawlenty, but made it clear their votes would turn on the particulars of the transportation plan, which could change as it moves through the process. A fifth Republican, Rep. Ron Erhardt of Edina, is co-sponsoring the bill.

"It needs to be a good-sized bill," said Rep. Jim Abeler, R-Anoka. "It needs to really make a dent. This will be the bill for the next five years or so."

"We're in a different era now after the bridge collapse," said Rep. Kathy Tingelstad, R-Andover.

Reps. Dean Urdahl, R-Grove City, and Dennis Ozment, R-Rosemount, said they want more transportation spending but are reluctant to override Pawlenty.

"I never say never, but it would be extremely unusual if I would support an override, and I would have to see what the circumstances were leading up to the governor's veto," Ozment said.

The plan includes $600 million in borrowing to repair the state's worst bridges within two years. That would be enough cash to fix 13 so-called "fracture-critical" bridges that lack redundancies, as the 35W bridge did. The legislation also incorporates Pawlenty's borrowing plan for bridges, which he made the centerpiece of this year's public works bill.

Like last year's vetoed bill, the new package would raise the state gas tax by 7.5 cents by 2010 and add a half-cent metro-area sales tax for transit.

The bill calls for an immediate 2-cents-a-gallon rise in the gas tax, followed by another three pennies in the fall. The tax would also be hitched to inflation so it would go up automatically. On top of that, another 2.5 cents could temporarily go onto the tax by 2010 to pay down road-building debts.

The full gas tax increase would cost the average Minnesota driver -- who travels 11,000 miles a year and gets 20 miles per gallon -- slightly more than $40 a year, according to the bill's sponsors.

Low-income taxpayers could get a $25 tax credit to offset the higher gas tax. Sen. Scott Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis, said the spending plan would also ease property taxes by picking up a share of costs for roads and rail now shouldered by local governments.

The plan would recharge the state's economy by creating 33,000 new jobs a year for the next five years, Murphy said at a Capitol news conference. He said that figure was based on the new bill's price tag and a Federal Highway Administration study of transportation spending.

Republican House Minority Leader Marty Seifert criticized the new package for raising the gas tax and other taxes when people can least afford it, as the state's economy struggles. He also noted that the federal government is paying to replace the 35W bridge.

"This is not the time to be gouging more money out of people's pockets," said Seifert, R-Marshall.

Seifert said House Republicans would hold together to sustain a transportation veto, while the Democrat who heads the House Transportation Finance Division, Rep. Bernie Lieder of Crookston, said he expects the package to win the necessary GOP votes. He offered no guarantees, though.

"It's never a sure thing when you're dealing with legislators. We assume that we will," Lieder said.

The Senate opened the year without a familiar face and voice at the front of the chamber. Pat Flahaven, the Secretary of the Senate since 1973, will miss at least the first week as he recovers from surgery.

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The original I-35W bridge over the Mississippi River opened in November 1967 and was 1,907 feet in length. The replacement bridge opened in September 2008 and measures 1,216 feet in length.

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)