According to the Hawaii Constitution, the Legislature proposes expenditures and the governor disposes cash, balancing spending with tax revenues predicted by professional economists on the state Council on Revenues.

With tax revenues falling, Gov. Linda Lingle has to find ways to cut spending. In government, as it is in most enterprises, a major expense is payroll, which includes salaries plus benefits paid by the employer.

The most drastic way to cut payroll is to lay off workers. The other is trimming individual pay. Gov. Lingle has ordered three days of unpaid furloughs each month for 14,500 state employees, including herself, her staff and state administrators. The move is being forced by a $729 million deficit.

The resulting objections and protests were expected.

One of the least credible objections was voiced by Randy Perreira, executive director of the Hawaii Government Employees Association, the union that covers white-collar employees. He said the governor "seems intent on having only government employees pay to get us out of the economic mess." Why should government workers be exempt from the pain this economic mess is inflicting on virtually every other worker in Hawaii?

Naturally the unions don't want their members' paychecks cut 14 percent. Union leaders, who might consider cutting their own pay and demands in negotiations under way, have urged raising the general excise tax, ignoring the fact it would raise the cost of living for their members while diverting the cash flow needed to heal a sick economy.

Private sector employees are all facing pay cuts, layoffs and job eliminations so they shouldn't be expected to be sympathetic to the plight of government workers. Legislators, however, are very sympathetic since all those thousands of employees can be relied on to vote. The 2009 Legislature danced around the revenue problem, which has grown worse since it adjourned. House and Senate leaders still haven't suggested any alternatives.

Under the law, the governor has to balance the budget. If there isn't enough coming in, what goes out must be cut. The governor is doing what she must do, politics be damned.

* Editorials reflect the opinion of the publisher.