Maui leaders question decision

The Maui News
Tuesday, June 2, 2009

By BRIAN PERRY, City Editor

WAILUKU - While Maui County's leaders said they understood the need for Gov. Linda Lingle to take action because of falling state revenue projections, they questioned Monday her decision to order three-days-per-month furloughs for state workers and reductions of free health insurance benefits for low-income adults.

State Rep. Joe Souki, who represents Wailuku, Waikapu and Kahakuloa residents, said that while he was concerned about the economic impact of state employees having less buying power, he also was alarmed about the governor's reduction of $42 million in state spending on health insurance under the Medicaid program.

"What's going to happen to these people? Are they going out in the street?" he asked. "This certainly's putting a big puka in the (low-income community's) safety net."

Souki said he would prefer that the governor look at tapping the $140 million in the state's hurricane insurance fund to help make up the budget shortfall.

State Sen. Roz Baker, who represents West and South Maui residents, said Lingle's ordering of state worker furloughs "generates more questions than answers."

"While her plan may bridge the shortfall created by the latest Council on Revenues projections, what will the impact be on the lives of those families in our state and on the morale of public employees, and what will be the impact on our struggling economy from their loss of income?" Baker asked.

She said she's concerned that the governor's actions, especially with reductions in health care, "will have unintended consequences of affecting patient care and leaving some of our most vulnerable citizens without health care. In that regard she's shifting the burden to others."

Maui County Council Member Gladys Baisa pointed out that the three-day furlough for state employees amounts to a 15 percent pay cut when three of 20 working days per month are lost. The Lingle administration calculates the pay cut at nearly 14 percent.

Baisa said she would rather see a tiered system in which lower-paid state employees would get fewer furlough days - one instead of three, for example - "so we don't create working poor."

The working poor don't earn enough to pay their bills, and the governor's action could see "some people get deeper in trouble. . . . We don't know what the impacts will be," she said.

Mayor Charmaine Tavares said the governor's action affects only state and not county employees. So far, the county has avoided layoffs, furloughs or cuts in pay for workers, she said. But next fiscal year, "it could be a very different story."

While the governor asked for the public's patience as state departments and employees work to minimize the effects of the furloughs on public services, Tavares said there will be an impact.

"It's definitely going to hurt services. It's not a pretty picture here," she said. "There's going to be some impacts on our community."

Maui Chamber of Commerce President Pamela Tumpap said that in tough economic times, "all of us are having to rethink how we live and do business."

Island businesses also have been making tough decisions, reducing employees' hours, laying off employees and "paring down to what they can afford," she said.

The chamber is not in favor of raising taxes or legalizing gambling as ways for the state to raise money, Tumpap said.

State Sen. J. Kalani English, who represents residents of Upcountry, East Maui, Molokai and Lanai, said he was curious to see how state labor unions will react.

But what everyone can agree on, he said, is that "these are extraordinary times."

"It takes extraordinary action to make sure we remain solvent and viable as a government," he said. "It will require everybody give up something."

State Sen. Shan Tsutsui, who represents residents of Central Maui, Lower Paia and Kahakuloa, said he's not sure the governor can unilaterally furlough employees without going through collective bargaining with public employee labor unions.

He said the percentage is a "big pay cut" and something that "needs to be negotiated."

Tsutsui, vice chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, suggested looking at the state's hurricane and rainy-day funds to help meet the budget shortfall. Or, he said, there could be some combination of tapping those funds and some "revenue-enhancing measures."

West Maui state Rep. Angus McKelvey said he also questioned whether Lingle has the power to order the furloughs under Hawaii's collective bargaining law for public employees.

McKelvey said he hoped a special session of the Legislature would be called to discuss what Lingle is proposing as well as "all the range of options" that are available to lawmakers.

"I think we have to look at all the options on the table," he said. "Especially if the word is that there may be another projected downturn."

* Brian Perry can be reached at citydesk@mauinews.com.

Original article URL: http://www.mauinews.com/page/content.detail/id/519214.html

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