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State Workers Protest as Maine Government Shuts Down

AUGUSTA, Maine - About 150 state workers rallied at the State House Saturday morning, as Mainers woke up to their first government shutdown in more than 25 years.

Maine is currently operating under a state of Civil Emergency, after lawmakers failed to pass a $7 billion compromise budget by the stroke of midnight June 30.

Idled state employees whose jobs are funded by state dollars marched around the State House and shouted "We want to work! Let me work!"

One of them was Mark Landry of Augusta, who is employed at Maine Revenue Services.  He held a sign that read, "Same story different decade" referring to the last time the Maine Legislature failed to approve a budget, back in 1991, resulting in a shutdown that lasted several weeks.

Landry says he remembers the hardship, and is concerned that history could repeat itself.  "There are many, many people who are directly affected who, without a paycheck, won't be able to pay their bills,"  he said. "I see room for compromise. I see 7. 2 billion reasons you could possibly compromise on, and create a budget that everyone can get behind and that the governor could sign."

The workers then marched up to the third floor of the State House, where they were addressed by a handful lawmakers who had remained behind to try and reach an agreement. One of them was Sen. Troy Jackson, a Democrat from Allagash, who told them he planned to stick around until the situation was resolved. 

"I am here and I will continue to be here, and I will continue to do everything I can, because no one - no one - should be put in this type of situation,"  Jackson said. "It is unbelievable that they've done this and I can't tell you how much I appreciate what you're going through, because I am one of you, and I always want to be one of you."

Sen. Roger Katz, a Republican from Augusta, acknowledged that neither Democrats nor Republicans are happy with the budget, but they need to make it work somehow. "We all realize there's one responsibility we have under the Constitution and one responsibility only and that's to pass a budget. And you get to passing a budget by compromise. And whether your heroes are George Mitchell or Bill Cohen, you recognize that we're sent here to compromise. You guys don't deserve to be collateral damage."

The full effects of a shutdown likely won't be felt until after the holiday.

A committee plans to keep working through the long weekend to try and avoid a prolonged outage of state services. In the meantime, the state remains in partial shut down. A number of critical departments and agencies have been directed to maintain service, such as the Maine State Police and Department of Corrections. Other services, such as forest protection, are on-call.  

Meanwhile, TD Bank and Maine Credit Union League have announced that they're offering special loans to those adversely affected by the shutdown, including those whose welfare benefits may be interrupted. The banks are also waiving overdraft fees.