State House Speaker Scott Saiki said Thursday the “main purpose” of reconvening the state Legislature will be working with Gov. David Ige to find other options or alternatives to what Saiki called “drastic budget cuts and furloughs” to stabilize state finances during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Hawaii State Legislature will reconvene on Monday, May 11, despite the state Capitol's extended closure through the end of the month.
The Senate Ways and Means and House Finance committees, the legislature’s powerful money committees, will “propose legislation to address a projected shortfall of about $1 billion,” Saiki said during a news conference Thursday morning.
That’s a significantly lower shortfall than the $1.5 billion amount Ige and his budget officials have used in recent public discussions.
Saiki said lawmakers’ estimates are “based on the Legislature’s projections. We’re not really sure what projections the governor used when he arrived at his amount, but our calculations show that it’s in the neighborhood of $1 billion.”
Saiki and state Senate President Ron Kouchi have come out strongly opposing Ige’s proposal to cut state employees’ pay by 20 percent, starting as soon as June 1.
Saiki said state legislators want to “use different tools to address the budget shortfall. They will be looking at generating some revenue savings by addressing lapses in the budget, as well as vacant positions, all the vacancies throughout state government. They will also be looking at authorizing the governor to borrow funds.”
When they return to the Capitol, lawmakers plan to authorize Ige to borrow money from the federal government to cover the cost of running state government, a temporary solution to the state budget crisis that was proposed by U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz last month. The money would need to be repaid later.
The Legislature also wants to authorize the administration to issue “pension bonds,” which are financial instruments that would allow the state government to borrow the money it needs to pay the annual pension obligations for public workers.
The state contributes about $500 million a year to the Employees Retirement System to cover its pension obligations for state workers, and pension bonds would allow the state to borrow that money in the near term and repay it later.
The Hawaii State Teachers Association, Hawaii Government Employees Association, and their national parent unions have fought against the pay cuts, which would worsen Hawaii's economy. Last month, they offered more than 15 alternatives to pay reductions.
Saiki said lawmakers will “truncate the session” to deal with budget issues and confirmations of nominees to various boards and commissions that the Senate needs to tackle to keep those bodies functional. The House’s session will take a minimum of six legislative days, so lawmakers could continue meeting through about May 18, Saiki said. The Senate may need nine to 10 legislative days to handle nominations to state boards and commissions, Kouchi said.
Kouchi said, “These are absolute musts, critical bills that need to be addressed. They need to be addressed now, and we need to come back in when we feel it’s safe for our employees and it’s safe for our members to transact that critical business.”
Kouchi said he expects most members to attend the session in person when it reconvenes on Monday. All committee and floor proceedings will be live-streamed so the public can watch and listen to what happens.
The state Capitol will be closed with just one entrance during the session, with temperature screenings for staff and lawmakers who enter the building.