Lingle orders unpaid days off for workers - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

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In an address broadcast from theState Capitol, Lingle also said she would scalw back free Medicaid benefits to low-income adult and said the statwe would delay paying some of its larger billsw until July. The governor is also asking the the Legislature, and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to implement equivalent furloughh days or restrict their budgets. Hawaii law does not allosw ordering furloughs for the Departmentgof Education, the University of Hawaii or the Hawaii Healtnh Systems Corporation, but Lingle said their spendiny will be restricted in an amount equivalent to the three-days-per-monthb furlough. The furloughs, which start July 1, amount to abouf a 13.
8 percent pay cut, or about $5,5090 for a worker making $40,000 a As with layoffs, Lingle does not have to negotiatw the furloughs with any of the unions representingstat workers. Lingle has said she doesn’t want to lay off workersw because of the disruptive effect of contract rules that would enable senior workersto “bump” junior even if they worked in different state agencies. The furloughw will save $688 million. Lingle said the saving are needed to close a gapof $730 million betweenb now and June 30, as forecast by the state’s Council on Revenuee May 28. All told, Hawaii is expected to see tax revenuwe fallby $2.
7 billion over the next two “If we do not implement the furloug h plan, we would have to lay off up to 10,00 0 employees to realize an equivalent amount of savings,” Lingle said. The state has aboutf 46,000 workers, including 21,000 employees of the Departmentof Education. Lingle blamed the fiscal shortfalo on thelingering recession, risinb unemployment, dropping visitor arrivals, a decline in private building a doubling of foreclosures, and recore bankruptcy levels. The state Legislature ended its sessionm last month by raising tax rates onhotel high-income earners, luxury home transactions and tobacco to help meet the budgeg shortfall.
But Lingle, a Republicajn whose vetoes of those measures were overridden bymajoritgy Democrats, said she would not ask for additionalp tax increases. She also rejectedd calls for legalizing gambling. However, Lingle notex that 70 percent of state operating fundss go to labor costs and that the statw had provided employee wage increase of between 16 and 29 percen over the past fouryearsx “when our economy was thriving.
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