Newswatch
"A strike will not change that situation unless we go out and raise taxes," Cayetano told the Star-Bulletin's top editors Friday.
If the teachers were to get a requested $87.8 million retroactive pay raise for the fiscal biennium that ends June 30, it could mean cuts to welfare and social service programs, Cayetano said.
The Hawaii State Teachers Association union hasn't stated what kind of pay increase it wants in the next two fiscal years, said Charles Toguchi, Cayetano's chief of staff and the administration's lead negotiator on the teachers contract.
But even if the teachers don't get a new raise in the upcoming fiscal biennium, just their 7 percent pay increases from the previous biennium will cost the state $133.2 million, Toguchi said. That's an increase of $221 million over a four-year period.
The state is facing a budget shortfall of $170 million, and that doesn't include any pay increases.
Cayetano's offer: no raises for the current biennium but a 4 percent pay increase for the next two years plus wage boosts if they teach an additional five days a year. That amounts to $87.7 million over four years.
"I will make this a priority," said Democratic Sen. Daniel Akaka, calling the center an "important institution."
"We have to educate Congress about the role of the East-West Center," echoed Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Honolulu, noting that Clinton himself has stressed the importance of international relations - especially with Asia - in recent statements.
The $7 million proposed for the East-West Center, down from $10 million allotted this year, was one of several hits Hawaii programs took in Clinton's $1.7 trillion 1998 budget proposal.
The Commerce Department budget alone included a raft of cuts for Hawaii, including:
Eliminating funding for fisheries research at the Oceanic Institute, which relies heavily on federal funding. The institute received $750,000 this year.
A 50 percent cut in grants for the undersea research program, including the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory at the University of Hawaii.
Eliminating funding for the Tsunami Hazard Mitigation, which operated in Hawaii and Alaska and received $2.4 million this year.
But there was also bright news for Hawaii. For the first time, a president included significant funding for native Hawaiian education, a decade-old program that has survived due largely to Sen. Daniel Inouye's ability to persuade the Senate to add funding.
Clinton proposed spending $15 million for native Hawaiian education, the same amount allotted this year. Last year, Clinton proposed spending $6 million - the first funding proposed for the program by any president - and the Senate raised the amount.
"It is essential that steps be taken to save lives should an unthinkable terrorist event occur," Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., said yesterday in announcing the cities where Metropolitan Medical Strike Teams will be established through the $100 million Pentagon program.
The funding is part of a nonproliferation program pushed through Congress last year by Lugar, Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., and former Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga.
The program was developed in response to the use of chemical agents in the World Trade Center bombing and the Tokyo subway poison gas attack.
The training will include use of self-contained breathing units and hazardous-material decontamination devices. It will begin next month and run through the year 2000.