Gov. Linda Lingle’s plan to furlough state employees for three days a month took shape this week, portrayed in a press release and accompanying news conference as the state’s last, best and only option to plug a $700 million puka
Gov. Linda Lingle’s plan to furlough state employees for three days a month took shape this week, portrayed in a press release and accompanying news conference as the state’s last, best and only option to plug a $700 million puka in its biennial budget.
That’s just not the case.
In the release, Lingle said if employee unions successfully block the furlough plan — they’ve already announced that they’ll try — she’ll have no choice but to lay off 2,500 state employees to save the necessary funds. It’s a not-so-thinly-veiled threat.
If that possibility is on the table, we seriously suggest it gets a closer look. The furlough plan is going to directly impact 15,600 state workers, and thousands more will feel the same pinch when agencies like the Department of Education and University of Hawai‘i pass their budget reductions down to their employees.
So, our question is a utilitarian one: Which plan creates the greatest good for the greatest number of Hawaiians? Or, in this case, which proposal creates the least bad for the fewest amount of residents?
Running the cold, hard numbers may be just that — cold and hard — but it would be better for all of us if the governor made good on her threat to lay off a couple thousand instead of putting the squeeze on tens of thousands.
Under the furlough plan, tens of thousands of Hawai‘i families are going to see their salaries sliced, meaning their disposable income could drop to essentially zero, if they can still keep their head above water on essentials like groceries, rent and transportation.
All that extra money, which is spent on non-essential but important items like going out to eat and entertainment, will no longer be helping keep Hawai‘i’s small businesses afloat. The multiplier effect will drop to zero.
On the other hand, firing 2,500 employees will devastate those workers and their families, but the 30,000 or more who don’t have to be furloughed will be able to spend that extra money to sustain the rest of us. Those who do lose their jobs will still be able to get by for awhile thanks to unemployment.
Employees and unions feel that the burden of balancing the budget is being unfairly laid at government workers’ feet, but the truth is the furloughs affect the entire economy and the private sector dramatically, as The Garden Island’s Dennis Fujimoto made clear in his Saturday article, “Furloughs hit home: Kaua‘i could lose $30 million.”
He reported that the 14 percent pay cut will affect 650 workers on Kaua‘i, and could take more than $1 million out of the island’s economy every month for the two years the furlough plan is in effect.
We understand that with a $700 million budget shortfall, cuts will have to be made, and we understand that people are the biggest chunk of government. However, failing to have the stomach to truly cut government fat by laying off a small percent of the workforce and instead punishing the entire group is both unfair and ineffective.
In our opinion, it’s time to get tough instead of just talking tough. Lay off those who are not needed, pay those who are, and help us dig ourselves out of this tremendous hole we’re in.
