Jonah Ka'auwai says he understands the fear and confusion facing thousands of state workers on this first day of Gov. Linda Lingle's controversial furlough plan for state workers.

Until yesterday, Ka'auwai was a state worker himself, as division administrator for Correctional Industries. He resigned the position to attend to his new duties as chairman of the Hawai'i Republican Party. Now the Ka'auwai family will rely heavily on income earned by his wife, Shari Lea Kimoto, herself a state employee.

Yet unlike other state workers who gathered outside the state Capitol yesterday to demonstrate against Gov. Linda Lingle's plan to address the state's $730 million budget shortfall through 2011, Ka'auwai said he believes the governor's belt-tightening measures — which include mandatory three-days-per-month furloughs for 15,600 state workers in 16 departments — are a fair and appropriate response to the state's worst economic crisis in recent memory.

Ka'auwai said the furloughs will require difficult adjustments for affected workers but are preferable to the 2,500 layoffs Lingle has said would otherwise be necessary.

"Some of my workers are just happy to have jobs," Ka'auwai said. "I feel for them."

The furlough plan is expected to save the state about $688 million. And while many affected workers have expressed dismay that they will have to shoulder such a large percentage of the deficit, Ka'auwai and other Republican leaders say the plan is reasonable given that labor costs are the largest share of the state budget.

Ka'auwai pointed to the state's burgeoning unemployment ranks as evidence of real economic catastrophe.

"Look at the 47,000 unemployed last month," he said. "How many of them were state employees? Where's the fairness there?"

UNION DUES

Ka'auwai also dismissed the demonstration at the Capitol, just a few blocks from the Republican Party office, as an event orchestrated by union officials to sway public opinion at the expense of substantive discussion about economic solutions.

"If (the Hawai'i Government Employees Association) ... has 43,000 members and they pay $54 (in dues), that's more than $2 million a month that they're taking in," he said. "What is that money going to? Bus rides and T-shirts and fliers? Wouldn't it make more sense to help subsidize the workers? Some of them can't make it with a 14 percent reduction. Are their (union) bosses taking a pay cut? No. Are they still going to collect dues? Of course they are.

"The furloughs are a gift to the union bosses because they can still collect dues and get their $150,000 salaries," he said.

State Rep. Lynn Finnegan, a Republican representing the Waimalu area, said the governor's plan is "all about jobs."

"Our No. 1 priority was to keep people employed," Finnegan said. "All jobs are extremely important. They're what people need to provide food for their families and keep roofs over their heads."

Like Ka'auwai, Finnegan said other solutions suggested by the unions, such as drawing from the state's emergency relief fund, are short-term fixes for long-term problems, while a proposed increase in the general excise tax would "devastate" already struggling households and stall economic recovery.

"The GET doesn't make distinctions," Finnegan said. "You have to pay it no matter what."