WAILUKU - Gov. Linda Lingle's proposal for the state's top elected leaders to put off scheduled pay raises received a cool response from three of four Maui County lawmakers reached for comment Monday.
A fourth legislator, South Maui state Rep. Joe Bertram III, made it abundantly clear he doesn't like the idea.
"What a joke!" he said, pointing out the governor's projected savings from forgoing raises would be about $4 million. "That's what they call budget dust. It's just absurd.
"Let's look at the big picture, big dollars," Bertram said.
Lingle's proposal would suspend for two years pay raises for 42 executive branch officials, 90 judges and all 76 state legislators. The raises were recommended by the Commission on Salaries in 2007. The commission was set up by a constitutional amendment approved by voters in 2006.
Bertram said the aim of having the commission determine pay raises was to remove politics from the process, but Lingle's proposal runs counter to that, putting lawmakers in the position of considering a bill that would affect their own pay.
He said the reasoning behind lawmakers earning less than other top government officials is that they are a "part-time legislature," meeting in lawmaking session from mid-January into May. But Bertram said the job actually is full time, helping constituents with their concerns and working on bills.
State Sen. Roz Baker, who represents West and South Maui residents, said: "There might be a better way to go."
She suggested all state employees - from the governor on down to the lowest-rung worker - give up a day's pay, perhaps once a month. The bottom-level employees might be asked to give up only a vacation day, Baker said.
That way "everybody shares in the effort not to have to cut services so drastically," she said. Also, giving up a day of pay could result in greater savings and "really engage everybody in the effort. . . . That to me makes more sense . . . than freezing salaries."
Central Maui Sen. Shan Tsutsui, vice chairman of the Senate Ways and Mean Committee, said the governor's proposal to freeze top officials' pay raises is "one of many proposals we're going to take a look at."
But he said the governor's proposal won't make much of a dent in cutting the budget.
"We're looking for a billion dollars," Tsutsui said.
Lawmakers aren't sure what the actual budget shortfall will be, either, he said, pointing out legislators will get two more Council on Revenue projections before they make their final decisions.
"The outlook could be a lot worse. It could be where it is now," Tsutsui said. "We'll take a serious look at all of (the governor's) proposed budget cuts."
But he said he was concerned that cutting top government officials' salaries would affect the quality of people willing to take on government service.
Already, the Senate has seen through judicial confirmations and seen that "many people are not willing to sit on the bench" because of what lawyers consider low pay, he said.
State Rep. Joe Souki, whose district includes Kahakuloa, Wailuku and Waikapu, said he had "no comment" on the governor's proposal.
Bertram said the governor would do better to look at other ways the state could save money.
He argued the state wastes money incarcerating nonviolent offenders and in enforcing its laws against growing and using marijuana. He called the drug war a "disaster" and said it has "not affected drug use in the least."
The governor said that as the state asks employee unions to go without proposing raises in the upcoming collective bargaining negotiations, it will be important for state leaders to "also make sacrifices and lead by example."
Currently, members of the state House and Senate earn $35,900 annually, but they are scheduled to begin receiving $48,708 beginning Jan. 1, according to the Senate president's office. The Lingle proposal calls for lawmakers to forgo that raise, which would save taxpayers $486,704 in fiscal year 2009.
For a 12-year period from January 1993 to January 2005, lawmakers earned $32,000 per year. They were paid $34,200 from January 2005 to January 2007, when they began getting the current pay.
* Brian Perry can be reached at bperry@mauinews.com.
