AUGUSTA – Maine Gov. Paul LePage Thursday issued a list of state government functions that would stay open in the event state lawmakers are unable to reach a deal on the state’s next two-year budget by Friday.
Among those LePage will order to stay on the job are state law enforcement officers, including the State Police , the Maine Wardens Service, the state’s marine patrol and the state’s drug enforcement agency.
LePage’s notice came just hours after he vowed to sit for 10 days, as allowed by law, on any budget that doesn’t include key items he and members of the House Republican minority caucus have demanded, including the elimination of 3 percent surcharge on household income over $200,000 that was approved by voters last fall.
In a release issued by LePage’s office, the governor said he is preparing a Civil Preparedness Emergency Order that would be made effective as of 12:01 a.m. Saturday.
Other state departments and agencies that LePage will order to work include:
• All Department of Correctional facilities, which includes Maine’s prison system.
• Department of Health and Human Services psychiatric hospitals, including the Riverview Psychiatric Center in Augusta and the Dorothea Dix Psychiatric Center in Bangor.
• Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry firefighters, on an on-call basis.
• Maine State Parks including all state parks as well as the Baxter State Park Authority.
• The Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife’s Maine Wildlife Park in Gray and the Swan Island campground and historic grounds on the Kennebec River in Richmond.
• Department of Administration and Financial Services
• Office of Information Technology will have limited operations to support emergency functions and protect state infrastructure, with on-call support as needed.
“If a Declaration of Civil Emergency is issued, the Order will become effective at 12:01 a.m. on July 1, 2017, and remain in effect until the state of emergency is terminated by Executive Proclamation, or until 12:00 a.m. on July 3, 2017, whichever is earlier,” the release from LePage’s office stated. “If the state of emergency still exists by 12:00 a.m. on July 3, 2017, the Order will be reviewed and revised accordingly.”
Additionally Thursday, the state’s Judicial Branch issued an advisory detailing what state court functions would continue during a shutdown and offered a list of court houses that would stay open.
About half of the state’s court houses will stay in business, with at least one court in each county open during regular business hours. But the courts will limit their activities largely to public safety issues, criminal matters and child protection cases. Civil and traffic violation cases be postponed.
“The number and location of open courthouses may vary, day to day, based on the kinds and the numbers of cases already previous scheduled and “noticed” to litigants, law enforcement, lawyers, government agencies and the public,” according to a memo issued to the media from the Judicial Branch.
This story will be updated.
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