That was the word from Superintendent of Education Pat Hamamoto and state negotiator Davis Yogi when they sat down with the union bargainers last week to take up the bonus issue.

The bonuses played a key role in settling a three-week strike by 13,000 public school teachers in April of last year.

The 3 percent bonuses were delayed to teachers last year after the state and HSTA disagreed over whether the bonuses applied to one or both years of the new deal.

The Hawaii Labor Relations Board ruled in February that the bonuses applied to the first year of the two-year teachers contract and the two sides would have to negotiate bonuses for the second year.

"They are going to be angry, but more so it's really a feeling of disappointment, a feeling of not being valued, a feeling of being left out again," said HSTA President Karen Ginoza.

The DOE received an additional $12.7 million in federal impact aid this year, which could have been used to pay for teacher salary bonuses under the HLRB ruling.

But DOE officials say they have had to use the money instead to cover a $32 million shortfall in their budget.

"The second year bonus was dependent on the availability of funds," said DOE spokesman Greg Knudsen. "We had a $32 million shortfall that had to be met."

"It's hard talk about having extra money for any purposes when mostly what we are seeing are deficits and shortfalls that must be met. We basically had to make use of existing resources just to meet the bills that we currently have," he said.

The priorities are special education, bus transportation, charter schools and other teacher salary costs, DOE officials said.

The HSTA is looking at its legal options and will have its board take up the issue when it meets next week, Ginoza said.

Gov. Ben Cayetano said today it is clear that the state is facing a shortfall and that it doesn't appear to be the time to consider a bonus or pay raise.

"You can’t squeeze blood out of a rock," he said. "If you don’t have the money, you don’t have the money."

Cayetano said he would hope that HSTA leaders would recognize the state's financial situation and that the state is still obligated to serve the needy and deal with expenses surrounding the federal mandate to improve services for special needs students.

"I would hope that instead of talking about legal options and going out and riling up the rank and file that perhaps they would come in, be briefed by us as to what the state’s fiscal situation is and perhaps go out and explain it to the rank and file," he said. "And I think that most teachers are reasonable people.

Cayetano said the bonus issue could be raised in the next round of contract negotiations as the economy improves.

Advertiser staff writers Lynda Arakawa and Jennifer Hiller contributed to this report.