The Maui County Council's proposed budget deletes $18 million in transient accommodation tax revenues over uncertainty whether the county will receive this money from the state (The Maui News, April 21).

It's unfortunate that the County Council

appears to have given up rather than fight for what rightfully should go to the county. However, this can be reversed if the state Legislature ends its efforts to withhold the counties' share of the TAT revenue in an attempt to balance the state budget.

As a former Maui mayor, Gov. Linda Lingle understands that the two primary revenue sources for the counties are property taxes and the transient accommodations tax. That's why the governor is strongly opposed to withholding TAT revenue from the counties.

While the state has other options to balance the budget and close an unprecedented $2 billion revenue shortfall, there is no realistic way to balance the budget without looking at the primary expense, which is labor. As a point of fact, the state's annual labor costs are approximately $3.6 billion, or 70 percent of the general fund operating budget.

When the economy was flourishing over the past four years and the state was enjoying a budget surplus as a result of prudent fiscal management, the government work force shared in the prosperity. Through fair negotiations, the different union bargaining units received raises of between 16.5 to 29.6 percent over four years.

Now, with the state facing a historic $2 billion revenue shortfall, the governor is proposing approximately $300 million in labor savings over two years. This is reasonable, fair and responsible, and reflects the shared sacrifice that we all must make during these challenging economic times. It is the same kind of sacrifice that has already been made by workers in the private sector all across our state.

Before looking at labor savings, the administration took proactive steps to restrict spending, freeze hiring, restructure debt and scale back programs, resulting in over $1 billion in savings. Gov. Lingle has also proposed hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue enhancements, including transferring special funds to the general fund and closing loopholes in tax credit laws as well as the use of federal stimulus funds to help close the revenue shortfall.

These meaningful budget actions, combined with labor savings, would avoid having to undertake mass layoffs and general tax increases - both of which would have a devastating effect on our economy and hinder our recovery by adding to the state's 7.1 percent unemployment - 8.9 percent on Maui, 9.1 percent on Lanai and 12.7 percent for Molokai - and further burdening Hawaii's residents and businesses who are struggling to make ends meet.

The labor savings would also eliminate the need for the Legislature to withhold TAT revenue from the counties. For this reason, it would behoove the county mayors to join with Gov. Lingle in seeking shared, across-the-board labor savings for state and county employees.

Unfortunately, Democrat legislators are refusing to face reality and are ignoring this obvious and responsible solution. They are choosing instead to remain beholden to only one constituency - the public employee unions - at the expense of all the people of Hawaii, the detriment of county budgets and at the peril of our state's economic recovery.

* Georgina Kawamura is the state director of budget and finance.