Of all the states in the country, the State of Hawaii is one of the states most heavily impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.
The state's reliance on tourism to fuel its economy means that it is very vulnerable to the conditions of the pandemic and as a result, workers around the state are out of work en masse as businesses continue to fail. A proposal to help offset the lost revenue caused by the pandemic included imposing state worker furloughs twice per month.
Gov. David Ige said that this will no longer be necessary. However, the governor also stated that there will need to be some measures taken to increase labor savings, one way or another. There has been a sharp decline in government revenues due to the pandemic and that difference must be made up somehow. As of now, it is unclear how the governor plans to make up this difference, but he is slated to present his financial plan to state lawmakers in the coming weeks, which should give us a clear indication of his plans.
In previous statements, Ige stated that they would need to impose furloughs twice a month in order to save 9% on payroll, or about $300 million per year. However, he has now walked back those suggestions, perhaps as a result of harsh criticism in response by the public worker unions.
“We have been able to reduce the labor savings needed in those proposals, so we don’t need the two days a month that we were asking for earlier," Ige said. "We will need to see labor savings. We are in the process of negotiating contracts with all of the collective bargaining units, and we will continue to do that. The financial plan does require labor savings in order to balance.”
In addition to taking cost-savings measures to keep the budget balanced, Ige directed the state to take $750 million in loans to help fund operating costs for the government for this year.