At a press conference in Newark where he touted tax incentives, Governor Murphy announced that he has notified state agencies to prepare for a shutdown. Negotiations are continuing over a budget passed in New Jersey’s Senate and Assembly which doesn’t include millions in spending proposed by Murphy in his budget.

After Murphy proposed a budget which included a property tax break to New Jersey residents contingent on the passage of a bill hiking taxes on millionaire’s and corporations, Assembly Democrats put forth their own budget for Fiscal Year 2020 which omitted the tax break and tax on millionaire’s, which easily passed in New Jersey’s legislative chambers. Murphy has not said whether he will sign the budget bill, veto it, or line-veto it, in which he would veto portions of it and send it back to legislators to amend to his liking.

But in telling agencies across the state to prepare for the possibility of a shutdown, Murphy is acknowledging what has become obvious to all – neither he, nor Democratic lawmakers are in a negotiating mood. Neither Murphy nor legislators have any plans to meet before the shutdown deadline. Both sides are engaged in a political game of chicken – one which will quite possibly result in a government shutdown. To make matters worse, if a shutdown does occur, it will cause the closure of state parks, beaches and other attractions right as the Fourth of July holiday gets underway. This would result in massive headaches for vacationers and officials across the state.

A similar showdown between Governor Murphy and lawmakers occurred last year, also in a squabble over a millionaire’s tax, but an agreement was reached at the eleventh hour which averted the shutdown. It isn’t clear whether such an agreement could be reached again this time around.

The last time the New Jersey state government suffered a shutdown was in 2017 under Governor Chris Christie. If the government shut down again, it would be the third time New Jersey’s government went into a shutdown in the past 15 years.