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Senator’s plan The Senate is mulling a plan to give public employees the pay raises they want.
grants state workers
their pay hike
Brian Taniguchi calls for the state
to cut some budget items and boost
taxes to fund the raisesUH proposal offers raises, merit pay
By Richard Borreca
Star-BulletinBut it is not getting much support from Senate president Robert Bunda, who called the proposal "an opening scenario."
Sen. Brian Taniguchi, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, briefed Democrats yesterday on a plan to pay state employees everything they are asking for in collective-bargaining talks.
Taniguchi, (D, Manoa) has previously said he would add the figures into the state budget to use as a starting point in budget plans. The figures would add more than $520 million to the two-year budget and would put the state into a deficit of $72.7 million in the first year of the budget period, $434.7 million in the second year and $553 million in the year after that.
Under the proposal, the state would cut some budget items and raise taxes to fund the pay raises.
For instance, the proposal would suspend plans to further reduce state income taxes, cut administration additions to the budget, reduce the state base budget, raise the hotel room tax and charge a higher rate for taxes paid by hotel room wholesalers.
All those reductions, however, are calculated to bring in only an additional $468 million, leaving the state with a deficit by 2003.
Gov. Ben Cayetano has previously warned the Legislature that the state couldn't afford the raises proposed by the unions.
Earlier this week, the Senate Health Committee approved a bill that would raise the general excise tax.
The bill left the specific amount blank and planned to forward it to Taniguchi's Ways and Means Committee.
Yesterday, Bunda called the hotel room tax increase "a possibility" but said he was getting the message from his Democratic caucus that a tax increase would not be popular.
The state has offered a new pay raise proposal to University of Hawaii faculty that addresses some of the concerns raised by the faculty union. State’s UH proposal
offers raises, merit payStar-Bulletin staff
State chief negotiator Davis Yogi met yesterday with a federal mediator and a representative of the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly, the union that represents UH faculty.
The two-year proposal provides an across-the-board raise of 7 percent for faculty at the community colleges, with the potential for another 2 percent merit raise.
Faculty at Manoa, Hilo and West Oahu would receive a 6 percent raise, and would be eligible for up to 3 percent in merit pay.
Merit pay would be based on excellence in teaching and research, where applicable.
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