http://www.wcsh6.com/news/local/top-state-lawmakers-want-budget-deal-in-48-hours/452040968
Due to fighting over last years education referendum, the Maine Legislature has failed to come up with a new 2-year budget. If they don’t have one made, agreed to, and signed by the Governor by Friday, the state government will shut down.
It could be worse. They could be Illinois.
It must be going around! State shutdown could wreck your 4th — and a lot more | Crosscut
Due to fighting over last year’s education state supreme court ruling, the Washington State Legislature has failed to come up with a new 2-year budget. If they don’t have one made, agreed to, and signed by the Governor by Friday, the state government will shut down.
Government shutdowns are kind of a joke anyways, at least they have been in my mind ever since “government shutdown” meant “erect barricades around the WWII Memorial”. The game at the local level is “vote for the tax increase or else we’ll have to lay off the police and firefighters”. At the federal level it’s “vote for the budget increase or else we’ll have to barricade the WWII memorial”. It’s all just political theater.
Fortunately these get resolved before they lead to situations more significant than inconsequential barricades around public memorials. Maine and Kansas both suffer from having deranged governors and that just makes budget agreements hard to accomplish. It would be unfortunate if Maine has to suffer for a bit before their Republicans grow up but they voted for that whacko so the people shoulder some blame as well.
And the OP didn’t even mention that this dispute involves Straight Dope’s favorite governor, Paul LePage:
https://www.google.com/search?num=100&q=site%3Astraightdope.com+Governor+LePage
As a reservist I can tell you that government shutdowns and/or the threat of government shutdowns are a giant pain in the dick. We plan our drill weekends/annual tour months in advance like we’re told only to have everything change at the last minute, completely jacking up our plans and in some cases leaving people to scramble for child care. Just because it doesn’t affect you doesn’t mean there’s no consequences.
They could always do what California did on at least one occasion; make payments with, for all intents and purposes, IOUs. Most banks know the state will be good for the money eventually.
Yeah, the shit rolls downhill. (See also: furloughs and being paid in IOUs, cited above.)
Although HurricaneDitka has a bit of a point: this is “political theater” in the sense that no one seriously thinks the government is, y’know, really shutting down. Let alone permanently getting drowned in the bathtub.
It’s brinksmanship, a negotiating ploy – but one that causes chaos and hardship on ordinary people like stereonz, and wastes money and time because of last-minute chaos in government operations. (Some of that cost falls on the government, and some on the individuals who have to deal with that chaos individually.)
Lepage seems intent on making this shutdown happen.
Give Maine to the Canadians, problem solved.
But you have to keep LePage.
When the NEA spends a few thousand dollars on a controversial art project, and right wingers stage protests over the waste of government funding, that is political theater.
When right wingers shut the government down and it results in a $24 billion loss to the economy and costs Americans about $2 billion in actual tax revenue, that isn’t political theater. That’s a travesty.
If the budget committee can’t come to an agreement by the end of the day today, there will likely be a shutdown no matter what Lepage does because of the time it takes to complete the process.
While people were whining about the WWII memorial being shut down, my wife was out of work waiting for the government to resume normal operations. I guess one family’s lost paycheck is another person’s “It’s all just political theater”.
And then we’d install responsible parliamentary government and end these silly budget shenanigans in the Province of Maine. 
A shutdown is guaranteed to happen now. No matter when the legislature comes up with a budget, Lepage has promised to sit on it for 10 days before acting, meaning a shutdown would last at least that long.
Budget negotiations last night failed, and the government shutdown started at 12:01 AM. Lepage didn’t even get a budget to veto, as it failed in the State House.
Lepage and Speaker of the House Sara Gideon are now locked in a vicious feud. 75% of state workers will be out of a job until this gets resolved.
That’s really sad for the 33% of the civil serpents who actually do work.
They will still have a job, just not get paid for it right away! It’s okay, they can call up their CA brethren and commisserate as its not unheard of over here.