Furlough Injunction Brings Layoffs Closer

KGMB9.com
July 02, 2009

Written by Tim Sakahara - tsakahara@kgmb9.com

Now that a Circuit Court judge has blocked Gov. Linda Lingle from furloughing state employees, what happens next?

The governor and attorney general went into a 4 p.m. meeting Thursday to talk about it.

Governor Lingle got the initial call during a groundbreaking ceremony in Kapolei and it was the kind of call you can't ignore. On the other end was Attorney General Mark Bennett letting her know the injunction was granted.

"I'm certainly not angry everybody can see things in different ways," said Governor Lingle after the ceremony.

The Attorney General says the state will appeal to the Supreme Court. He will ask for it to be expedited but it could still take a while. Without furloughs or new revenue sources the state could run out of money which means layoffs could happen even before the furlough issue is resolved.

"A clock is ticking when you give a layoff notice, the earlier you give it, the earlier you can put it into effect. As I mentioned the issue about how many days notice you have to give will probably also end up in court if we don't get this furlough issue resolved in our favor," said Governor Lingle.

The Governor says the injunction doesn't give the unions the upper hand, although she does hope union leaders will be more truthful with their workers.

"I feel when I listen to some of the members, I don't think the leadership has really told them everything that's gone on and how many times we've tried to come up with solutions. Till today we have never had a proposal from the unions other than raise taxes. That has been their only solution and that's something I'm just not going to be able to support," said Governor Lingle.

But some senators are. They're planning to reconvene to override some of the Governor's vetoes and they may also use the session to find more money.

"Which means we have to look at raising taxes, what I'm hearing from a lot people, people out in the community that the fairest thing to do is a one percent raise on the general excise tax," said State Senator J. Kalani English, Hana, East and Upcountry Maui.

"I think given the economic forecast this is not the right time to be raising taxes," said State Representative Sharon Har, Kapolei and Makakilo.

"I think people need to recognize we can't afford the government we have, we have to make adjustments and I hope we can do it together," said Governor Lingle.

Under the previous union contract the state had to give 90 days notice before starting layoffs but that expired on Tuesday. They'll have to negotiate how early they could start sending out pink slips.

Original article URL: http://kgmb9.com/main/content/view/18832/40/

Return to Sen. English Home Page - KalaniEnglish.com

Home Bills and Resolutions About Senator English Committees Community Profiles Newsletter Archive News Archive Capitol Web Site Media Photos

Connect with Senator English

OUR DISTRICT