Hawai'i's police win four-year pay raises
By Treena Shapiro and Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writers
The city may have to raise gasoline and property taxes to help cover $67 million in an arbitrated award that gives Honolulu police officers a 4 percent pay increase in each of four years of a new contract, Mayor Jeremy Harris said yesterday.
Harris said the increase in county gasoline taxes could be two cents a gallon and that property taxes may have to go up by an unspecified amount in the later years of the contract.
In addition, Harris said he has instituted a temporary hiring freeze while he explores ways to cover $5.7 million for the increases this year, which are retroactive to July 1, when the previous contract expired.
"While I think everyone agrees that the police deserve a pay raise and certainly have top priority in receiving a pay raise, it does get back to the ability to pay," Harris said.
The City Council acknowledged that it will be difficult to come up with the $67 million, which covers the raises as well as health benefits for Honolulu's 1,905 officers. But some questioned whether increasing gasoline taxes is feasible or wise.
The State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers received notice of the award from Los Angeles-based arbitrator Catherine Harris on Friday. The contract will cover 2,600 officers statewide.
All four counties will have to agree for the contract to go into effect. Most Neighbor Island officials commenting yesterday indicated that they would be likely to approve the contract.
The new contract calls for 4 percent across-the-board increases each year from July 1 through July 1, 2006.
"We feel good but not satisfied," SHOPO President Tenari Ma'afala said of the decision. "The officers deserve more."
The base pay of an entry-level recruit (up to three years of service) as of July 2002 was $33,408; a lieutenant with 22-plus years in HPD earned $61,572.
"I think we did well, considering the state of the economy," James "Kimo" Smith, SHOPO's chapter chairman on O'ahu, said.
Smith said the chapter had sought increases of up to 10 percent a year to bring the pay scale in Hawai'i up to West Coast levels.
"But we're dealing with four separate counties, so it was difficult," Smith said.
SHOPO's previous arbitrated contract gave officers raises of about 14.5 percent over four years.
Harris said yesterday that he is also evaluating the departments to see where they can cut back.
"It puts an enormous strain on all the other departments because they are operating on such limited resources," he said.
Raising the gasoline tax by 2 cents would raise $2.9 million by June 30 if the council approves it by January, Harris said.
In subsequent years, property tax increases may have to be considered, he said. Harris, however, did not say how much property taxes would have to be increased.
By the last year of the contract, the city would be paying $27.7 million more for police salaries.
Council Budget Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi said that finding the money is going to be difficult, and said she does not understand why the administration did not include more money to pay for raises in this year's budget.
"We knew that police, fire and bus drivers' salary negotiations were this year, yet only $5 million was in this account," she said.
However, she said the city will have to come up with the money for raises.
"We'll certainly consider (Harris') proposals because the police are just underpaid, understaffed, and the more we can help them, the better off our whole community will be," she said.
Councilman Charles Djou agreed that the raises need to be financed, but he disagreed with increasing the gas tax. The city's gasoline tax is 16.5 cents a gallon. Djou said the 56.5 cents per gallon tax, including federal, state and county levies, is the highest in the nation.
"I think that a raise for the police officers is a good idea ... but financing a pay raise for officers via a gas tax increase is simply not a good idea," he said.
Kobayashi and City Council Chairman Gary Okino both suggested that a gasoline tax might not work for police raises if the revenue must go into a highway fund and be used only for transportation activities.
Okino said it might be better to wait for the next budget cycle to come up with a way to finance the increases, and then pay the raises retroactively.
"If we do it through the regular budget process, we can look at all of the options, including raising the property tax," he said.
On the Neighbor Islands, Maui Mayor Alan Arakawa said he fully supports the wage increases as a necessary step to slow the flow of island police officers to the Mainland.
"On Maui, we've been short in the police department by 30 positions in recent years and we've been unable to compete because the salaries and the cost of living do not match the Mainland," Arakawa said. "This will give us a little better chance to compete."
Kaua'i County finance officers said they were reviewing the award but had not had time to assess its impact on the county budget.
Kaua'i Police Chief George Freitas said he hopes the raises will help stem the loss of police officers to higher-paying positions elsewhere.
"It seems to be a very good package," Freitas said. "Hopefully, it will do something to have officers think about staying rather than thinking about leaving. I'm very happy for the officers."
On the Big Island, Mayor Harry Kim's administration tucked an extra $1.2 million into the county budget for this year in anticipation of public worker raises, said county managing director Dixie Kaetsu.
"This is very comparable to what the firefighters got, so it was not a huge surprise," Kaetsu said. "We're hoping that what we put aside, plus money from vacancies and retirements, will cover what we have to pay."
William Takaba, the Big Island county finance director, said it appears there is enough money in the budget to cover the awards for SHOPO and the firefighters.
Takaba said the working estimate is that the police arbitration will cost the county about $750,000 in extra wages and benefits this year, while the firefighters' award will cost $600,000.
Advertiser staff writers Timothy Hurley, Jan TenBruggencate and Kevin Dayton contributed to this report. Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.
