Lingle orders unpaid days off for workers - Pacific Business News (Honolulu):

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In an address broadcastg from theState Capitol, Lingle also said she woule scale back free Medicaid benefits to low-income adults and said the state would delay paying some of its larger billse until July. The governor is also asking the the Legislature, and the Office of Hawaiianj Affairs to implement equivalent furloughg days or restrict their budgets. Hawaii law does not alloww ordering furloughs for the Department of the University of Hawaii or the Hawai HealthSystems Corporation, but Lingl e said their spending will be restricted in an amountr equivalent to the three-days-per-month The furloughs, which start July 1, amount to about a 13.
8 percent pay cut, or about $5,500 for a worker making $40,000 a year. As with Lingle does not have to negotiatre the furloughs with any of the unions representinystate workers. Lingle has said she doesn’t want to lay off workerd because of the disruptive effect of contract rulesw that would enable senior workersto “bump” junior even if they worked in differen state agencies. The furloughs will save $688 million. Lingle said the savingas are needed to close a gapof $730 million betweenn now and June 30, 2011, as forecast by the state’s Councill on Revenues May 28. All told, Hawaii is expectede to see tax revenue fallby $2.
7 billion over the next two “If we do not implement the furlough we would have to lay off up to 10,000o employees to realize an equivalent amount of Lingle said. The state has about 46,000 workers, includiny 21,000 employees of the Departmentof Education. Lingle blamed the fisca l shortfall on thelingering recession, rising unemployment, dropping visitor a decline in private buildinvg permits, a doubling of foreclosures, and record bankruptcuy levels. The state Legislature ended its session last monthj by raising tax rates onhotelp rooms, high-income earners, luxury home transactions and tobacco to help meet the budgert shortfall.
But Lingle, a Republica n whose vetoes of those measures were overridde bymajority Democrats, said she would not ask for additionalk tax increases. She also rejected calls for legalizintg gambling. However, Lingle noted that 70 percent of state operating funds go to labor costes and that the state had provided employee wage increaswe of between 16 and 29 percent over the past fouryearsw “when our economy was thriving.
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