Hawaii judge halts furloughs for state employees

HONOLULU — A Hawaii judge has blocked Gov. Linda Lingle from forcing thousands of public employees to take three unpaid days off per month, dealing her a setback in efforts to tame a huge state budget gap.

Lingle wanted her furlough plan to start as early as Monday. Citing a $729 million budget shortfall over the next two years, she said a fiscal emergency existed that empowered her to unilaterally impose what amounted to a nearly 14 percent pay cut.

But three state employee unions, basing part of their challenge on constitutional grounds, asserted that Lingle was overstepping her authority. Circuit Court Judge Karl K. Sakamoto on Thursday agreed and issued an injunction against Lingle.

The state constitution’s provision granting public employees the right to collective bargaining bars the governor from altering state worker wages and hours without negotiating with their representatives, he ruled.

“Furloughs involve wages, actual wages decreasing,” Sakamoto said. “Furloughs as core subjects of collective bargaining must be negotiated.”

Hawaii is one of dozens of states wrestling with budget woes linked to the prolonged national recession. Attorney General Mark Bennett said Hawaii is facing a “global economic crisis unknown since the Great Depression.”

Between July 2008 and June 2011, state revenues will have dropped by at least $2.7 billion — a figure that is sure to rise, he noted.

Bennett said the state is seriously considering an appeal to Sakamoto’s ruling.

Union leaders were elated by the ruling and said they’re ready to negotiate with Lingle over furloughs, pay cuts or other measures to reduce state spending.

“We can conduct bargaining without the threat that the governor has put forward about the furloughs, and we are hopeful that the governor will now bargain in good faith without further threatening layoffs,” said Randy Perreira, executive director of the Hawaii Government Employees Association, the largest of the unions with almost 30,000 members.

Lingle has previously threatened to resort to layoffs of thousands of workers if furloughs were blocked.

But after the ruling, she took a wait-and-see attitude.

“One of the alternatives is layoffs and I think everyone wants to avoid that,” she told reporters. “So we’ll wait and see how this all plays out.”

In a statement released Thursday evening, Lingle said she would look for additional savings from state agencies and from negotiations over labor contracts. The budget shortfall could grow even larger when the state’s Council on Revenues meets in September, she said.

“While we have already cut $2 billion in spending, the fact is we simply cannot afford the government we have now,” Lingle said.

Lingle outlined her furlough plan a month ago, saying she would force 14,500 workers under her direct control to take three days off each month for two years. The number of affected employees subsequently rose to 15,600. Furloughs would save about $688 million over total two years, she stated.