AUGUSTA — Maine’s state employees’ union is requesting a meeting with Gov. Paul LePage’s administration to prepare for what the union is calling an “inevitable” state government shutdown. The shutdown would result if lawmakers and LePage fail to come to agreement on a new state budget by July 1.

In a letter sent to the LePage administration on Monday, the union’s chief negotiator, Rodney Hiltz, wrote that executive branch agencies “were directed to prepare plans for an ‘inevitable’ shutdown of all nonessential functions of state government for the month of July.”

As a result, Hiltz is using the union’s right to request a meeting within the next 10 days “for the purpose of bargaining over both the decision and the impact of this shut down on employees working in the bargaining units represented by this union.”

In his letter, Hiltz also requested correspondence from LePage’s office and state agencies related to a potential government shutdown and any shutdown-related planning documents.

A spokeswoman for Gov. Paul LePage couldn’t immediately be reached for comment Tuesday morning.

The letter comes as lawmakers start negotiations on LePage’s proposal for a new two-year budget, which would take effect July 1. LePage is also expected soon to release a package of proposed amendments to the budget to keep pace with projections that state revenue collections will dip another $60 million during the two-year budget cycle.

The budget would require passage by two-thirds of lawmakers in order to take effect July 1 and for state government to avoid shutting down at that time.

Democratic lawmakers, who hold majorities in the House and Senate, have already rejected a number of the budget’s proposals, including its suspension of revenue sharing with municipalities, reductions to property tax relief programs and cuts to programs within the Department of Health and Human Services. Democratic members of the Legislature’s Education Committee have also voted to boost education funding by $30 million beyond LePage’s proposed funding levels.

Lawmakers have yet to reach an accord on how to fill the gap created as a result, with Democratsfavoring increases to certain state taxes and LePage generally opposing state tax increases.

The possibility of a state government shutdown has overshadowed debate in the State House since House Republican Leader Ken Fredette of Newport raised the possibility during a television interview in February.

The last time Maine’s state government operations shut down was in 1991, as Republican Gov. John McKernan tussled with a Legislature controlled by Democrats over whether the state budget should be tied to reforms of the state’s workers’ compensation system.