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

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In an address broadcast from theState Capitol, Lingle also said she would scales back free Medicaid benefits to low-income adults and said the stater would delay paying some of its larger bills untilp July. The governor is also asking the the Legislature, and the Office of Hawaiian Affair to implement equivalent furlough days or restricrt their budgets. Hawaii law does not allow ordering furloughs for the Departmentof Education, the University of Hawaio or the Hawaii Health Systems but Lingle said their spending will be restricte in an amount equivalent to the three-days-per-month furlough. The which start July 1, amount to about a 13.
8 percenrt pay cut, or about $5,500 for a worker makingg $40,000 a year. As with Lingle does not have to negotiate the furloughs with any of the unionz representingstate workers. Lingle has said she doesn’rt want to lay off workers because of the disruptivs effect of contract rules that would enable senior workers to junior workers, even if they workerd in different state agencies. The furlough s will save $688 Lingle said the savings are needede to close a gapof $730 millionm between now and June 30, 2011, as forecasgt by the state’s Council on Revenuesz May 28. All told, Hawaiui is expected to see tax revenue fallby $2.7 billionm over the next two years.
“If we do not implemenf the furlough plan, we would have to lay off up to 10,00 0 employees to realize an equivalent amount of Lingle said. The state has about 46,000p workers, including 21,000 employees of the Departmentyof Education. Lingle blame d the fiscal shortfall on thelingering recession, rising dropping visitor arrivals, a decline in private buildinvg permits, a doubling of and record bankruptcy The state Legislature ended its session last montbh by raising tax ratess on hotel rooms, high-income earners, luxury home transactions and tobacc o to help meet the budget But Lingle, a Republicann whose vetoes of those measures were overridden by majoritg Democrats, said she would not ask for additional tax She also rejected calls for legalizingy gambling.
However, Lingle notee that 70 percent of state operating funds go to laborr costs and that the state had provided employee wage increasr of between 16 and 29 percenrt over the past fouryears “whej our economy was thriving.”