Tavares: Next year going to be tough one

The Maui News
October 15, 2009

By BRIAN PERRY, City Editor

WAILUKU - While saying she was pleased that the Hawaii Government Employees Association reached a tentative agreement Wednesday with the state and the four counties, Mayor Charmaine Tavares warned that the county faces a steep challenge next fiscal year.

"It won't affect us the first year," Tavares said, referring to the first year of the two-year agreement that would start retroactively on July 1 next year and end June 30, 2011.

Union members begin contract ratification meetings today and continue Friday and Monday.

The mayor said the county anticipated meeting its salary and medical payment obligations for this fiscal year, which ends June 30, 2010.

But next fiscal year will be a different story, with declining property tax revenue and with a probability that "we may have to do furloughing then," she said.

However, under the tentative agreement, the counties have the flexibility to determine the number of furlough days, Tavares said. "Each county can decide or determine how many furlough days they might need to do."

State employees would get 18 unpaid days off this fiscal year and 24 furlough days next. Combined, those days off are the equivalent of about an 8 percent pay cut.

Tavares said her administration would approach drafting next fiscal year's budget by trying to "economize as much as possible." That would mean not filling vacant positions and prioritizing projects and spending, she said.

When cuts could no longer be made, then the county administration would look at the number of employee furlough days needed, Tavares said. And, "raising taxes is always an option."

"It's going to be a tough year," she said.

County Council Budget and Finance Committee Chairman Joe Pontanilla said he was relieved that a tentative labor agreement had been reached.

"At least we now know what's ahead of us," he said, although he added that as of Wednesday afternoon he had not seen details of the agreement.

Pontanilla said that for the current fiscal year, "we're pretty much OK."

But he estimated that revenue would be 10 to 15 percent short of current income levels.

Next fiscal year, county officials will need to be "looking at all options, everything on the table," Pontanilla said, including higher property tax rates.

"We've got to consider all of that," he said.

Tavares declined to disclose details of private negotiations, but she said the counties' four mayors agreed to act as a block of four, knowing that Gov. Linda Lingle would need only one of them to agree with the state to determine the combined state-county position in negotiations.

She said the mayors told each other: "We're going to be in this together. It affects all of our employees and public services."

Tavares said layoffs of county employees would be a last-ditch option.

"When you lay off people, that really hurts," she said. "It hurts the economy. It hurts families."

The mayor said she would prefer furloughs as a way of sharing the pain without anyone losing employment.

Tavares asked for the public's understanding as the state and counties try to weather the ongoing recession.

"I hope the community understands we have to pitch in together to help each other stay whole," she said.

For example, cutbacks in public services might mean trash may be picked up in parks once every two weeks instead of the current once a week, she said.

State House Rep. Joe Souki of Wailuku said he also had not seen the terms of the tentative agreement, but he was pleased to hear that both sides had reached agreement.

He said he expects the general public and the unions, both the HGEA and the Hawaii State Teachers Association, to approach the Legislature next spring to reduce the number of furlough days.

Public protesters on Maui are already calling on the Legislature to reduce the number of furlough days for public school teachers, possibly by using the Hurricane Relief Fund.

Souki said he's open to considering various options, including raising the state excise tax "temporarily."

Souki said he made several speeches during this year's legislative session, suggesting the possibility of raising the excise tax, but no one seemed to take him seriously.

"Every poll has the public against it," he said.

He said he realizes many lawmakers are up for election in 2010 and that increasing taxes would be an unpopular and probably unwise move politically.

"It's not going to be an easy hill for the members," Souki said.

Maui state Sens. Roz Baker and J. Kalani English said they were pleased a tentative agreement had been reached with the HGEA, but they were not privy to its details.

"It's a good step to allow us to move forward," Baker said.

English said he understood that the parties went through "very tough and intense negotiations."

"I hope the end product is beneficial to everyone involved," he said.

* Brian Perry can be reached at citydesk@mauinews.com. Staff Writer Claudine San Nicolas contributed to this report.

Original article URL: http://www.mauinews.com/page/content.detail/id/524762.html

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