LIHU‘E — Last week, the state Department of Taxation withdrew its proposal to reorganize and reduce staff at the Kaua‘i DOT office.
LIHU‘E — Last week, the state Department of Taxation withdrew its proposal to reorganize and reduce staff at the Kaua‘i DOT office.
The reduction-in-force would have laid off seven of 11 Kaua‘i office employees, eliminate the Office Audit Section and Field Audit Section and downsize the Collection Section and Tax Services & Clerical Section. Office and field audits were slated to be completed remotely from O‘ahu.
The restructure was proposed to balance the state’s budget for the biennium. In a letter announcing the reduction, the state said the Kaua‘i office has a history of complaints and failures to complete assessments.
The Hawai‘i Government Employee Association, which represents unionized members, refuted those claims, and stated the cuts would negatively affect on-island and in-person services.
“HGEA fought back in the consultation process, disputing the state’s reasoning for the cuts, calling them unjustified, unfair and not based on a fair and objective assessment of operations,” HGEA said in a message to members.
“The state’s withdrawal of the planned cuts is great news and a win for both the Kaua‘i DOTAX employees and the community that they serve.”
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“the Kaua‘i office has a history of complaints and failures to complete assessments.”
So drastically reducing personnel is the obvious answer?
The government solution is to cut off its nose to spite its face, throw the baby out with the bathwater, etc, etc.
How about performing a root-cause analysis of the problem to find the real source? It’s not that hard to make people accountable to do their jobs.
It’s good that the union fought the reduction, but now the union should pursue a solution to the problem.