Budget battle hinges
on worker pay raisesGov. Lingle opposes giving HGEA
members an 8 percent increase
The Democratic-controlled state Legislature and Republican Gov. Linda Lingle are headed for a showdown over pay raises for public employees as the legislative and executive branches come up with widely different versions of the state budget.
CORRECTION
Wednesday, April 14, 2003>> The Legislature's version of the state general fund budget for fiscal year 2004 is $3.6 billion. A Page A1 story in yesterday's early edition incorrectly said it was $3.6 million.
The Honolulu Star-Bulletin strives to make its news report fair and accurate. If you have a question or comment about news coverage, call Editor Frank Bridgewater at 529-4791 or email him at fbridgewater@starbulletin.com.Lingle sent lawmakers a new budget plan yesterday as Senate-House budget conferees were readying their version of the $3.6 million general fund budget for fiscal 2004, which includes $43 million in pay raises for members of the Hawaii Government Employees Association and the University Hawaii Professional Assembly.
Lingle's plan would cut the white-collar workers' raise to 4 percent from 8 percent. The governor initially had opposed the Legislature giving the raises to the HGEA, which represents white-collar workers of the state.
An arbitration panel made the 8 percent award after considering financial information from both sides.
Lingle's plan is based on giving the public workers a 4 percent pay raise while balancing the budget with $60 million in cuts to new programs, special-fund raids and increased scrutiny in tax collections.
In contrast, the Legislature appears ready to approve all the public workers' union agreements and balance the budget by eliminating $39 million in programs in Lingle's proposed budget.
The Legislature wants to pass the budget and other key bills early so that if Lingle vetoes them, they will still be in session and able to override the vetoes.
The one area of agreement that Lingle is going along with appears to be cuts to 200 vacant state positions. Most of the vacancies are in the state Department of Transportation.
"It is important that we make the tough decisions today to curtail government spending for these wage increases not just this year, but in future years," Lingle said in a news release accompanying her new budget plan.
Details in the budget, however, show that the Legislature and the governor are still scrapping over each dollar. For instance, Democrats cut $90,000 from Lingle's budget for the position held by Lingle's senior policy adviser, Linda Smith. Smith criticized the move.
"If tomorrow the Legislature decides they are going to fund the collective-bargaining awards, they have made a finding of fact that they can afford $32 million. At the same time, they are finding they don't have $90,000 for the policy office," Smith said.
House and Senate conferees on the state budget have restored $164,942 for Lingle's Cabinet-level tourism liaison office headed by Marsha Wienert in the Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism. The governor had called the action "politics at its worst" on the part of the Senate's Democratic majority.
The new cuts proposed by Lingle would need legislative approval. Sen. Brian Taniguchi, Senate Ways and Means Committee chairman, said that some of them would also require state laws to be changed.
For instance, Lingle called for changing adult education to a "pay as you go" system instead of a state-subsidized system. Her new budget says that change would save $2.8 million in the next fiscal year and $5.6 million in fiscal year 2006.
Another Lingle cut would save $5 million in the next two years by not increasing the funding for invasive-species control programs. Also, about $1 million would be saved under her proposal by deleting pay raises for state deputy attorneys general.
Lingle's plan also would save $4 million a year by keeping federal impact aid that is usually given to the Department of Education, which Lingle said was extra funds.
Her plan also calls for refinancing general obligation bonds, saving $15 million in interest payments. The governor also proposed raiding $30 million from state special funds.
The Associated Press also contributed to this report.
