They insist it isn't partisan politics at work.

"We knew that regardless of whether it was Mazie Hirono or Linda Lingle that if we're truly talking about accountability and because finances are tight, revenues are slim we need to at least have the new executive tell the Legislature what she envisions as far as staff, as far as her department," said Senate President Bobby Bunda.

"We need to have that serious discussion and the Legislature, upon hearing what the new governor has in store, then proceed to fund those items or not," Bunda said. "Did we have to give it to her on a silver platter?"

House Speaker Calvin Say said lawmakers are open to Lingle seeking an emergency appropriation as soon as the 2003 session begins Jan. 15.

Lingle's takeover of the governor's office after 40 years of Democratic rule hit a snag this week when she learned that she has little money with which to set up her administration.

In their scramble to balance the state budget earlier this year, lawmakers provided no money to pay deputy directors of the various state departments.

They also didn't appropriate money to pay for 54 of the 60 positions in the governor's office. And they cut in half the $100,000 in transition funds provided for by state law.

Lingle's point man in the transition process, University of Hawai'i law Professor Randy Roth, said he was told of the budget cuts yesterday in a meeting with Gov. Ben Cayetano's chief of staff, Sam Callejo.

"I'm not sure if it is a financial or control issue," Lingle said. "The public would see it as playing games."

Lingle said she thinks as long as the Legislature didn't cut the administrative positions, she has the flexibility to find money elsewhere to pay the salaries.

Bunda said he's sure Lingle can find money to get her administration up and running.

"You know, the new governor talked about accountability, so let's start from the top," he said.

Say said the cuts to the governor's office were just its share of the cuts being made to most state departments by House and Senate conferees. "We were trying to balance the budget," he said.

Before this year's legislative session ended in May, lawmakers approved a bill to eliminate 23 deputy directors in 16 departments and to prohibit their reestablishment.

Cayetano vetoed the bill, but the $1.4 million to pay those positions remained deleted from the state budget beyond the fiscal year's first half, which ends Dec. 31.

While Bunda and Say at the time insisted the money was needed for important social programs, House Republican Minority Leader Galen Fox saw it as a hidden admission by Democrats that Lingle would win and a move to hinder her ability to manage the state's unionized bureaucracy.

"We didn't know who was going to get in," Say said today. "It would have applied to Mazie, too."