AUGUSTA, Maine (NEWS CENTER) -- Governor Paul LePage caught a few legislators off guard during a radio interview Thursday morning on WGAN.
"It's not over yet," said the Governor. "I just found out this morning that when they drafted the budget, they left out OIT, so if they don't come back and fix it, we're going to be shutting down."
Will the state of Maine be shutting down due to an error in the budget?
We asked the Senate President, Mike Thibodeau, and Representative Drew Gattine, the chair of the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee.
"I don't anticipate any government shutdowns over a million dollars," said Thibodeau.
OIT handles a lot of behind the scenes technology for state agencies. According to Thibodeau, the Governor is talking about a $1-million funding request that came from his administration.
Thibodeau says it was approved, but leaders are double checking now. Either way, legislators will not come back, and the state will not shut down.
"This is about one specific initiative they do in the OIT office, which is about a million dollars out of a $50-million department. I'm pretty sure they have the resources to cover that between now and January," said Thibodeau.
"If we need to appropriate an additional million dollars or something thereof, we are more than capable of doing that. Again, we are talking about a few short months before the legislature is back in January to deal with anything that might be a problem."
