Lingle orders unpaid days off for workers - Memphis Business Journal:

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In an address broadcasrt from theState Capitol, Lingle also said she would scale back free Medicaird benefits to low-income adults and said the statse would delay paying some of its largert bills until July. The governofr is also asking the Judiciary, the and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to implement equivalent furlough days or restricfttheir budgets. Hawaii law does not allosw ordering furloughs for the Departmenof Education, the University of Hawaii or the Hawaiji Health Systems Corporation, but Lingle said their spending will be restricted in an amounty equivalent to the three-days-per-month The furloughs, which start July 1, amount to aboutr a 13.
8 percent pay cut, or about $5,500 for a workerd making $40,000 a year. As with layoffs, Lingle does not have to negotiat the furloughs with any of the unions representing state Lingle has saidshe doesn’t want to lay off workers because of the disruptive effect of contract rules that wouls enable senior workers to junior workers, even if they workesd in different state agencies. The furloughs will save $688 Lingle said the savings are needec to close a gapof $730 million between now and June 30, 2011, as forecast by the state’e Council on Revenues May 28. All told, Hawaii is expectec to see tax revenue fallby $2.
7 billion over the next two “If we do not implement the furlough plan, we woul have to lay off up to 10,000o employees to realize an equivalent amoun of savings,” Lingle said. The statde has about 46,000 workers, includinv 21,000 employees of the Departmengtof Education. Lingle blamed the fiscal shortfall on thelingerinb recession, rising unemployment, dropping visitor arrivals, a declin e in private building permits, a doubling of foreclosures, and recorrd bankruptcy levels. The state Legislature enderd its session last month by raising tax rates onhotell rooms, high-income earners, luxurhy home transactions and tobacc o to help meet the budgetg shortfall.
But Lingle, a Republican whos e vetoes of those measures were overridden bymajorith Democrats, said she would not ask for additionalp tax increases. She also rejected calls for legalizingy gambling. However, Lingle notec that 70 percent of state operating funds go to labor costs and that the statee had provided employee wage increase of betweej 16 and 29 percent over the past fouryear “when our economy was