[ TEACHER STRIKE ]
MUCH TO THE DISTRESS of Gov. Ben Cayetano, striking teachers look at the latest version of the proposed state budget as proof that there is enough money for their pay raises. Senators to blame for
raising teacher expectations
on raises, Cayetano saysBy Richard Borreca
Star-BulletinNot so says Cayetano, a veteran of legislative budget battles for nearly two decades, who warns them not to believe everything they read.
The budget made public Friday by the Senate Ways and Means Committee would add $230 million in savings to $85 million in one-time budget cuts to pay for the anticipated pay raises.
Sen. Brian Taniguchi's committee said in its budget report that while Cayetano added money for "ever-increasing costs" it did nothing for the expected pay raises for public workers.
"Unknown costs due to the collective-bargaining cast doubts on the executive's ability to provide for all new expenditures and balance the budget," the report said.
Cayetano actually fired the first shot, saying on the night labor talks broke down the Senate budget caused teachers to hold out for more money.
"Obviously they are trying to accommodate and placate the unions," Cayetano said about the senators.
He said the budget would "unreasonably raise the level of expectations of the teachers."
Taniguchi responds that the budget was designed to give the teachers and the other public workers a raise.
"The governor told us, don't worry we are going to settle," Taniguchi said, noting that soon after that assurance, he found Cayetano on television debating the teachers instead of negotiating.
"I thought he was trying to work something out," he said.
The Senate, according to Taniguchi, a 20-year legislative veteran who is heading the Ways and Means Committee for the first time, was readying whatever was needed to pay the union raises.
"We are trying to help the governor ... he did not provide any money in his budget and we are trying to help the teachers, trying to be supportive," Taniguchi said.
Some of the details of the Senate budget, however, provide more reasons for the sharp disagreements between Cayetano and the Senate.
The governor says one of his objections is that the Senate balanced the budget on the backs of the poor, needy and disabled. For instance, Cayetano says, the Senate cuts his hoped-for new drug treatment programs in half.
It also takes the long-planned influx of computers and textbooks out of the general fund portion of the budget and takes $25 million out of the so-called "rainy-day fund" composed of money from Hawaii's portion of the federal settlement with tobacco manufacturers.
Cayetano also objects to taking money from the special funds, noting that the money is a one-time savings. "What you need to find are permanent savings," he says.
Taniguchi first found more than $120 million in excess money in special funds, but he said the Senate decided to be cautious and only took $85 million of what appeared to be unnecessary for programs.
The Senate then took $17 million from education programs designed for the Felix consent decree and another $12 million from the Health Department's share of Felix-related costs.
But the largest part of the budget trimming, nearly $92 million, came in small adjustments within the budget.
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