Newswatch
While he declined to specify the projected deficit, Anzai said such raises would cost the state $49 million this fiscal year - since they would be retroactive - and $67 million the next fiscal year.
Union leaders are skeptical, saying the state can afford to give pay increases.
Standard & Poor's Inc., a leading bond rating agency, has already placed Hawaii on a negative credit watch.
Although the state's general fund balance (the equivalent of your monthly checkbook balance) was roughly $161 million, which meets Standard & Poor's general rule of having on hand 5 percent of general fund expenditures, the financial monitor is concerned about the general trends in state spending.
Anzai yesterday said the general fund balance can cover the $85.6 million needed this fiscal year for extra costs in running Medicaid programs, community hospitals and child mental health programs.
But still unknown, he warned, is how much collective bargaining will cost the state - and that could hurt.
Anzai's comments came as University of Hawaii professors, who have been without a contract for 18 months, are poised to strike. Public-school teachers are also pondering a walkout.
Anzai said since the number of unionized nurses on the state payroll isn't great, their raise doesn't have a significant impact. They'll cost the state $900,000 this fiscal year and $1.1 million in the next fiscal year, he said.
But salaries account for 39 percent, or $1.26 billion, of general fund expenditures, Anzai said.
That soars to 55 percent when benefits, such as Social Security, health insurance, workers compensation and unemployment insurance are included, he said.
Keith Ahue, deputy executive director of the Hawaii Government Employees Association, the state's largest public workers union, said it is troubling that Gov. Ben Cayetano's administration isn't looking at the financial numbers coming out of the arbitration process.
Those numbers show that the state can afford to give a modest pay hike without having to impose a tax increase, Ahue said.
He defined a modest pay hike as a 6 to 7 percent raise.
"Although we are not opposed to tax hikes, just looking at the existing revenue and financial situation of the state shows it can afford pay raises," Ahue said.
The arbitration process for HGEA's largest units, comprised of white-collar and professional workers, are expected to be completed by late January and early February.
The University of Hawaii Professional Assembly, the faculty union, is keying its wage demands to what HGEA might get. UHPA wants an average of the arbitrated HGEA wage settlement for two years.
House Finance Chairman Calvin Say (D, Palolo) said: "It's a free-for-all right now. Everything is on the table. There are so many competing interests for the state's dollars.
"I'm going to take it one step at a time. I want to see what are the priorities of the (Democratic) majority caucus.
"Will it be pay raises or cutting funding for Medicaid for the next biennium? I don't know."
In an informal vote in Council chambers yesterday, Kawano received votes from all seven Council members present, including himself.
Councilman Sol Kaho'ohalahala was the only member who couldn't attend the organizational meeting because of poor weather at the Lanai Airport.
Kawano, 66, who will serve his sixth two-year term, has been the Council's vice chairman during the last two years.
Council members are to be sworn in Jan. 2, when they plan to make the vote formal.
The Council has scheduled a Jan. 9 meeting to select a successor for Thomas Morrow, who died in a Nov. 1 plane crash on Molokai.
Kawano and three other Council members had supported the appointment of J. Kalani English to fill Morrow's seat. Outgoing Council Chairwoman Alice Lee and three others had wanted Robert Carroll to fill the vacancy.
After the Council deadlocked on the selection in November, Mayor Linda Crockett Lingle picked Carroll to serve Morrow's unexpired term through this month.
Lee said she's hopeful Carroll will be picked to fill the two-year term as well but is unsure he has the votes.
She said a compromise was struck that enabled her supporters to maintain control of some major committees.
Under the planned reorganization, James "Kimo" Apana - who was aligned with Lee in supporting Carroll - will become Council vice chairman and chairman of the Budget & Finance Committee.
Lee will be chairwoman of the Committee of the Whole and Water.
Councilman Alan Arakawa, who supported English, will be chairman of the Community Plan Committee. Kaho'ohalahala, another English supporter, will be chairman of the Economic Development & Environment Committee.
The chairmanships of four other committees remain undecided, including Land Use; Public Works; Parks & Recreation; and Human Services, Agriculture and Housing.
Council members Dennis Nakamura, Wayne Nishiki, Charmaine Tavares and Morrow's successor are likely to head those committees, he said.
A fire broke out at 12:30 p.m. Monday in the Hawaii Electric and Light Co. building housing the station's transmitting equipment, causing HPTV broadcast service on the Big Island between Naalehu and South Point to be temporarily down.
Repairs are under way, and HPTV signals to other locales and cable companies have not been interrupted.
Police are investigating the case as an attempted murder. They have no suspects.
A passer-by reported the incident to two police officers who were in the area at 7:35 p.m. The officers found the man in the restroom with facial injuries.
The suspects allegedly took the man's wallet and left him lying in a stall.
The suspects, in their late 20s to early 30s, about 6 feet tall and 180 to 200 pounds, were seen fleeing toward the Neal Blaisdell concert hall.
Hy Hoe Silva was traveling east on the Hawaii Belt Road at about 5:20 a.m. when his motorcycle ran off the road and struck an embankment near the 46-mile marker in Honokaa.
He was flown to Queen's Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 3:15 p.m. yesterday.
Police have ordered an autopsy.
His death was the 35th Big Island traffic fatality this year, compared with 23 at the same time last year.
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