Lingle criticizes budget measure
By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Advertiser Capitol Bureau
Gov. Linda Lingle chastised lawmakers yesterday for handing to her a supplemental budget bill that is "inferior legislation" and could eventually lead to layoffs, but stopped short of saying she will veto the measure.
Lingle told reporters she had not yet reviewed House Bill 1800, the $3.6 billion general fund budget for the budget year that begins July 1, and cannot decide if she will veto it because she has yet to receive a six-year financial plan or other budget details from lawmakers.
LINGLE
While she did not say when she will make a decision, Lingle has until midnight April 30 to veto the budget bill.
That's because the majority Democrats in both houses, with unprecedented expediency, pushed through final approval of the bill Thursday. That gives them a chance to override any veto before the session ends May 6.
"The financial plan is important because what you do today has impacts in the years ahead and we want to have the whole picture, as they see it, before any action is taken," Lingle said. "There really is no complete picture right now."
Senate Ways and Means Chairman Brian Taniguchi, D-10th (Manoa, Makiki), said most of the budget details are on the Internet for everyone to review. "It's been online, I don't know what she's been doing," he said.
Taniguchi said the legislative branch is not legally required to give the governor a financial plan, but expects to complete one as issues, including raises for teachers and the state's blue-collar workers, are resolved.
The key disagreement in the budget between the Republican Lingle and the majority Democrats in the Legislature is over raises for government workers. An arbitration award issued to the Hawai'i Government Employees Association's 23,000 members gives them raises of between 5 percent and 9 percent beginning next year.
While lawmakers say they've carved out money in the budget for employee raises, Lingle said there's no money for them and instead wants the state and union to go back to the bargaining table so she can offer what amounts to a 4 percent raise. Lingle said the arbitration plan costs the state an average $100 million a year for the next three years while her proposal would cost only $60 million annually.
Taniguchi said that it's up to the administration to come up with a revised financial plan taking into consideration the raises as approved by the Legislature and that it has yet to do so.
The governor said what she has seen of the Legislature's spending plan troubles her.
"The road that they're taking us down is taking us down is digging a deeper and deeper financial hole," she said, citing the raiding of special funds and use of construction bond money to pay for permanent job positions. "It's going to be very difficult for us to get out of this."
Asked if the state's increasing costs could eventually lead to layoffs, Lingle said it could but did not say how many employees could lose jobs or when.
"I would say that in the long term, (lawmakers) are certainly headed in that direction," she said. "I made a very strong commitment, when I got elected, not to lay anyone off and yet they are purposefully trying to move to make pay raises at a level that I say could put us into a very difficulty financial situation."
Lingle said she is inclined to veto a related bill, Senate Bill 2525, which proposes to eliminate the Compliance Resolution Fund that finances the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs and to bring the agency's budget within the general fund's fold, a move that would give the general fund a one-time infusion of about $30 million.
There is no logical rationale for the move, the governor said, and the move "highlights the fact that they're rushing, that it's not well thought-out, that it's not integrated into a financial plan," Lingle said.
A veto of the Compliance Resolution Fund bill could develop into a major headache for the Democrats. Taniguchi said the Legislature will have no choice but to override such a veto, since the money coming out of that fund is part of their financial plan. The Senate, however, approved the bill Thursday by a 16-9 vote. An override would require a two-thirds majority of 17. The House yesterday approved the bill 33-15, with three excused.
Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8070.
