Gov. Linda Lingle met yesterday with her Cabinet and is expected to continue talking with state department directors today on further state spending cuts and layoffs to close the state’s budget deficit.

Lingle called the emergency meetings after the state Council on Revenues latest forecast for this fiscal year expanded the deficit by what the governor estimates is $98 million, to $884 million through June 2011. State lawmakers have a slightly lower estimate.
The governor’s response also came after she rejected the Hawai'i Government Employees Association counter-proposal to the state’s latest contract offer. The state and the union are scheduled for a binding arbitration hearing on Friday.
Lingle already has ordered more than 1,100 layoffs of state workers starting in November.