HONOLULU– Governor David Ige is considering a 20% pay cut for state workers due to a drop in tax revenue triggered by the coronavirus pandemic, but hasn’t made any decisions on the proposal.
Ige announced the idea on Wednesday in a news conference, saying he was in discussions with unions and lawmakers about potential cuts but no decision has been made. He said the tax shortfalls meant the state needed to cut $1.5 billion from the state budget over the next 15 months, according to Associated Press.
After Ige’s Wednesday announcement, Hawai‘i State Teachers Association (HSTA) held an emotional live conference on Facebook to voice their thoughts and concerns before the proposal is set in stone.
“Governor Ige, passing cuts on your workers will only hurt the economy, hurt your workers and hurt our keiki,” said HSTA president Corey Rosenlee.
Rosenlee was not happy with the proposal and said there must be other alternatives then to cut 14,000 teachers’ pay in Hawai‘i. The average salary of a Hawai‘i teacher is $65,000.
According to Rosenlee, they are in their third year of a four year contract and the last raise the teachers got was about a 3 % increase in pay.
“Our first responders should be getting hazard pay not pay cuts. For other government workers including teachers they will be getting a 20 percent pay cut. Right now we have cafeteria workers who are feeding our kids and risking their lives, and they will be getting a 20 percent pay cut. This is not fair,” Rosenlee said.
Rosenlee said the governor believes that these “draconian cuts” must be done immediately without looking at alternative measures. He said Hawai‘i’s teachers understand the crisis, but now’s not the time for a pay-cut.
As a twenty-year plus social studies teacher, Rosenlee believes that the worse thing one can do in a economic downturn is to restrict the money supply. He suggests Ige utilize federal emergency crisis funds to keep the Department of Education and other state entities afloat, rather than cutting pay.
“This is why the federal government has passed a $2 trillion stimulus bill and is working on another,” said Rosenlee. “The state has over a billion dollars in its cash surplus and its rainy day fund. Governor, it’s raining.”
According to Rosenlee, leaders from Hawai‘i’s private sector unions were informed by the governor’s representatives that the governor was planning on cutting government workers salary for over a year.
Rosenlee said it included a ten percent pay cut for the first responders including: firefighters, police officers and nurses and could start as early as May 1st.
Senate Ron Kouchi and Speaker Scott Saiki issued a joint statement Wednesday about Ige’s proposal, urging more research before any action is taken.
Although Governor Ige has the unilateral authority to impose furloughs and salary cuts, we do no agree with such action. We urge the Governor to obtain better data and analysis before he makes this decision. We also urge him to act on all alternatives, just as the National Governors Association did when it called on Congress four days ago to provide an additional $500 billion to the 50 states to stabilize state budgets due to take revenue shortfalls. Although we disagree with Governor Ige’s proposal, the Legislature will work with him to assess and pursue all options,” Saiki and Kouchi said in their joint statement.
Jodi Kudimitsu a math teacher at Maui High School and a former graduate of Kaua‘i High School voiced disappointment in the proposal at the HTSA press conference.
Kudimitsu said there should be other options to be looked at instead of cutting other people’s pay while trying to maintain some kind of normalcy for her students.
“My husband is a teacher too. This pay cut is also equal to the amount of our childcare. We have to figure out how we are going to make it and figure our monthly budgets…it is stressful,” said Kudimitsu. “In addition to us, we have friends who are employed by DOE and just had babies. We feel bad for them, how are they going to care for their child with all of these budget cuts?”
Department of Education Complex Area Superintendent Bill Arakai is working closely with the state.
“These are uncertain times for our entire state. This pandemic has impacted the state’s revenues, and we know this is having a very real and direct impact on jobs and many people’s livelihoods,” said Arakaki. “The Department of Education is awaiting guidance from the state’s Budget and Finance office on how to proceed in this environment with regard to budget implications for the 2020-21 fiscal year.”
He continued: In the meantime, we continue to closely monitor and control our expenditures while remaining focused on providing quality distance learning instruction state wide for all haumana (student).”
“I am hoping our Educating Governor Ige does the right thing,” said Rosenlee.
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Stephanie Shinno, features and community reporter, can be reached at 245-0424 or sshinno@thegardenisland.com.
