Gov. Linda Lingle said yesterday she is willing to discuss everything to help solve the state's budget woes — including legalized gambling.

The state's weak fiscal condition is prompting consideration of once-discarded or once-opposed ideas, the governor said.

"What I told my budget and finance people this morning was, let's not take anything off the table at this time, even though it's something I in the past have said I don't want to do," she told reporters at the Capitol.

"There is a possibility (that) each of us — the Legislature, myself, the community — we may have to agree to changes that we didn't expect we ever would because the circumstances have changed so drastically," she added.

Hawai'i and Utah are the only states that allow no form of gambling, including lotteries. The tradition here has been so strong that pending legislation in Congress that would set up a governing entity for Native Hawaiians includes a provision that bars that entity from implementing gambling.

But over the weekend, state Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairwoman Donna Mercado Kim, D-Kalihi Valley-Halawa, said she would look at gambling and other revenue generators before considering tax hikes.

The governor's openness to consider gaming did not worry anti-gambling activists.

"Somehow, it sounds to me more like a bargaining position rather than an adamant 'Yes, I will go for it,' " said Ira Rohter, first vice president of the Hawaii Coalition Against Legalized Gambling.

Lingle noted that what is driving the review of all possible budget solutions is the fact that the state will receive an estimated $1.8 billion less revenue over the next two years or so.

She has already floated the idea of requiring the state's 36,000 workers to take off one unpaid day per month, starting sometime after the beginning of the next fiscal year, on July 1. That would save the state $8 million. No specific proposal has been drafted, the governor said.

Lingle also has asked the Legislature to approve a transfer of $40 million from the state's rainy day fund, and has proposed other financial maneuvering to save a total of $221 million in the current fiscal year.

But on Friday, the state Council on Revenues downgraded state revenue estimates for the current and next fiscal years. That is expected to force the governor to cut an additional $125 million in the current year and a like amount from her proposed budget for the next fiscal year.

"You cannot continue on, knowing that you have about $1.8 billion less revenue between now and the end of that biennium budget," she said. "Everybody is aware of that. It's simply how we are going to address it."

She said she will consider all options and hopes to discuss everything with legislators. "I'm sure they have options that we haven't thought of yet, but we want every one of them on the table," Lingle said.

The governor's proposal to postpone scheduled pay raises for judges, legislators and executive branch officials this year has caused some commotion in the Capitol.

Legislators have noted that the governor and her top aides received 5 percent raises in 2007 and 2008 but constitutional restrictions forced them to wait until this month to get their considerable increase.

Lingle acknowledged Monday that she was unaware of that when she proposed the postponement last month. "My comments and my proposal is not to put them in a corner or to box them in," she said.