There's no question the state is facing a significant budget crunch.

While the shortfalls affect every citizen of the state, the most immediate effect is on public workers, who are faced with the unhappy choice of accepting furloughs or layoffs to bring the budget in line.

Gov. Linda Lingle has been demonized — somewhat unfairly — for trying to balance the budget by taking the money out of the hides of government workers. But what choice does she have?

Payroll is a dominant part of the overall state budget. If money is short, that's where the state has to go. With the exception of the Hawaii State Teachers Association, the unions have been fighting the idea of furloughs. No question furloughs are painful, but is there another logical choice?

If the state goes to the option of layoffs, a significant percentage of government workers will be out of a job permanently. At least with furloughs, there is the hope of restoration of hours and benefits when the economy turns around.

This entire mess has been complicated by politics and issues that have little or nothing to do with the state budget process. Lingle's efforts to make a deal with the unions have been stymied by the Democratic majority in the Legislature, which sees no gain in helping the Republican governor get out of this pickle.

At the same time, a proposed deal with the Hawaii Government Employees Association is stalled because the four county mayors, who are party to the negotiations, are reluctant to go along. You have to suspect the mayors have their own valid reasons for not wanting to go along with "Lingle's deal" with the unions.

There was a time when troublesome issues such as these were worked out informally, "Hawai'i style," between government and the public worker unions. Oftentimes it took little more than a handshake and a promise that things would be made right in due time to cut a deal.

That seems to be impossible today. And it's a shame. The plain fact is that everyone — unions, government leaders and the taxpayers — is in this together. It's easy enough to argue that Lingle is using the current budget crisis to deconstruct the structure of government built by the Democrats over 40-plus years. And maybe that is the plan, at one level or another. But making that argument does little to deal with the reality that the state — like so many others — is short of money and must deal with that reality in real time.

As Lingle has been saying in a statewide round of stump speeches recently, if the current option is unacceptable, then who is willing to step forward with an alternative plan?

Jerry Burris' blog is at www.honoluluadvertiser.com/section/featuredblogs.