By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer

NAPLES — If the deadlock on the passage of the 2017 State of Maine budget continues, will there be a state shutdown? How will it impact the Lake Region, especially during the month of July?

Those are real concerns as state shutdowns have happened in the past. A national shutdown in Washington, D.C., effectively closed the gates on many National Parks.

In Maine, towns rely on the tourists drawn to visit its parks. People from all other the world as well as locals spend time at Sebago State Park during the summer.

As the Naples Board of Selectmen meeting wrapped up on Monday, the dreaded topic of an impending state shutdown became the discussion.

“I am 100 percent against the shut down,” Selectman Cebra said.

“Each budget cycle has gotten more and more contentious,” Cebra said.

He said three people from each the Senate and the House of Representatives went into a room with the budget on Friday, hoping to come to a clear resolution on how to cut the expenditures that outweigh the state revenue, according to Cebra.

As of Monday, the stalemate continued. Nobody budged on the budget, Cebra said.

If a state shutdown occurred, the checks that are written from the state’s budget would stop coming, including unemployment insurance and paychecks for people with state jobs, according to Cebra. The money would not be distributed for the medical needs of people on MaineCare.

“Shutting down the state is going to be a disaster,” he said.

“It will affect us harshly. It would close the Songo Lock, the state park,” Cebra said.