UH faculty
sues state over
$7 million trim

The lawsuit claims money that
would have been saved by a payroll
lag was instead pulled from the budget

By Richard Borecca
Star-Bulletin

The University of Hawaii Professional Assembly was filing suit in federal court today, claiming the Cayetano administration has improperly withheld more than $7 million from the University of Hawaii.

In a press release this morning, UHPA Executive Director J.N. Musto said that while the federal courts had already directed the state and Gov. Ben Cayetano to not withhold money in a payroll lag, the state simply pulled the money from the UH budget.

"He sequestered the money illegally and without justification," Musto said.

"After he lost the payroll lag suit, he simply unilaterally deducted the amount the lag would have realized from the UH budget. . . . He did it to punish the faculty for opposing his will, and it has caused and is causing irreparable harm to the students, educational programs and the university research project," Musto said.

Earl Anzai, state budget director, said the suit "sounds like politics," and questioned the timing of the legal action, noting it was coming just before the Nov. 3 general election. But Anzai declined to comment on the UHPA allegations.

"Since they filed a suit, I don't want to talk about it," he said.

The payroll lag was supposed to give the state $51 million in savings, but UHPA filed a lawsuit in February, saying it had a different state labor contract and shouldn't be bound by the payroll lag.

U.S. District Judge Alan Kay this summer issued a temporary order blocking the UH faculty payroll lag. At the time, Cayetano had threatened to trim the UH budget by $7 million.

UHPA said the payroll lag dispute is one of the reasons why the faculty union has endorsed Cayetano's Republican opponent, Maui Mayor Linda Lingle, in the governor's race.