AUGUSTA — A Republican effort to overturn the $11.3 billion baseline state budget approved in March won’t move forward after organizers failed to gather enough signatures to send the measure to a referendum.

Rep. Gary Drinkwater, R-Milford, the lead petitioner on the people’s veto effort, said Tuesday night that proponents hadn’t gathered the nearly 68,000 signatures of Maine voters needed ahead of a Wednesday deadline.

“Regrettably, despite our best efforts, the petition fell short,” Drinkwater said in a written statement. “The concerns that fueled it remain — and we will continue to advocate for fiscal discipline, government transparency and a balanced approach that respects every taxpayer in our great state of Maine.”

Drinkwater declined to say how many signatures proponents of the people’s veto had gathered. He said the language Secretary of State Shenna Bellows issued for the question was a barrier, as it “created confusion and presented a major hurdle for voters.”

The question Bellows had written for circulation on the petitions to gather signatures was: “Do you want to stop most state government operations and programs, including new and ongoing state funding for cities, towns, and schools, by rejecting the state’s two-year budget?”

Drinkwater complained about the wording when it was issued in April, saying it was misleading, though he did not pursue a challenge in court.

Bellows defended the wording, saying that state law requires ballot questions to be “clear, concise and direct” and that she also wanted to be sure voters were aware of the implications.

Drinkwater and a group of five other current and former Republican lawmakers submitted paperwork to the Maine Department of the Secretary of State in March for a people’s veto in an effort to overturn the $11.3 billion continuing services budget that was approved by Democrats and signed by Gov. Janet Mills.

The push came after attempts to compromise on a supplemental budget fell apart and Democrats passed the baseline two-year budget without any Republican support. Drinkwater said at the time that the people’s veto effort was a response to concerns about tax increases that might be proposed in the next phase of budget work, as well as Republicans being “shut out of the budget process.”

Had proponents of the people’s veto gathered the necessary number of signatures to qualify for the ballot, it would have halted implementation of the budget, which is scheduled to take effect ahead of the fiscal year that begins July 1.

Drinkwater said his intent was not to prompt a government shut down, but to force Democrats back into negotiations. Mills and Democratic leaders urged voters not to support the effort, saying that its qualification for the ballot could have forced a shutdown, even if the question didn’t eventually pass.