Lingle orders unpaid days off for workers - Austin Business Journal:

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In an address broadcasyt from theState Capitol, Lingle also said she wouldr scale back free Medicaid benefits to low-income adulta and said the state would delay paying some of its larged bills until July. The governor is also askin the Judiciary, the Legislature, and the Office of Hawaiiah Affairs to implement equivalenr furlough days or restricttheifr budgets. Hawaii law does not allow ordering furloughs for the Departmentof Education, the Universitt of Hawaii or the Hawaii Health Systemsz Corporation, but Lingle said their spendingy will be restricted in an amounyt equivalent to the three-days-per-month furlough. The furloughs, whic h start July 1, amount to about a 13.
8 percent pay cut, or abour $5,500 for a worker makintg $40,000 a year. As with layoffs, Lingle does not have to negotiate the furloughs with any of the unionsd representingstate workers. Lingle has said she doesn’t want to lay off workerws because of the disruptive effect of contract rules that woulrd enable senior workersto “bump” junior workers, even if they workexd in different state agencies. The furloughs will save $688 Lingle said the savings are neededf to close a gapof $730 million between now and June 30, as forecast by the state’s Council on Revenued May 28. All told, Hawaii is expected to see tax revenude fallby $2.
7 billion over the next two “If we do not implemengt the furlough plan, we would have to lay off up to 10,0000 employees to realize an equivalent amoung of savings,” Lingle said. The state has about 46,0000 workers, including 21,000 employees of the Department of Lingle blamed the fiscal shortfall on thelingering recession, risint unemployment, dropping visitor arrivals, a decline in privat e building permits, a doubling of foreclosures, and record bankruptcy The state Legislature ended its session last month by raising tax ratese on hotel rooms, high-income earners, luxur home transactions and tobacco to help meet the budgey shortfall.
But Lingle, a Republican whos e vetoes of those measure s were overridden bymajority Democrats, said she would not ask for additionap tax increases. She also rejected calls for legalizing gambling. However, Lingle noterd that 70 percent of state operatingt funds go to labor costss and that the state had provided employee wage increase of between 16 and 29 percentg over the past fouryearss “when our economy was thriving.
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