Governor Lingle Details Furlough Plan

"The furloughs are being implemented in a very even-handed manner, whether pay comes from general funds, special funds or federal, no one is being considered special or above their fellow workers," the Governor said.

Starting July 1, 2009 and continuing through June 30, 2011, full-time employees in the Executive Branch will be placed on furlough for three days (24 hours) per month. Part-time employees will be placed on furlough on a pro-rated equivalent basis.

Under the Administration's furlough plan, several departments will close all or portions of operations on specified days, with the majority of closures taking place on Fridays. Read the plan.

To minimize the impact to the public, several offices will extend their hours to accommodate the public during furlough weeks. Other departments and agencies will modify their furlough schedules and remain open on certain days to ensure the public is able to conduct business and meet deadlines. 

The statewide furlough plan applies only to employees in the Executive Branch, including the Governor's Office, Lt. Governor's Office and 16 state departments and their attached agencies. It will save an estimated $688 million over the next two years and will avoid having to lay off employees at this time. In addition, furloughs will allow the state to continue to provide public services, maintain employee benefits and avoid recruitment and training costs for new employees when the economy recovers.

The furlough plan does not affect the Department of Education, University of Hawai`i, or the Hawai`i Health Systems Corporation.  These departments will see their budgets reduced by an amount equivalent to the three-day-per-month furlough, and the management and respective boards of the individual departments will determine how to implement the additional reductions.

"The decisions we're making now, the policies we're putting into place and the programs we're moving forward are focused on economic recovery. Our long-term goal is not simply balancing the budget for one year, but putting Hawai`i in a position to benefit when the economy does recover and to make certain that our quality of life remains high," said Governor Lingle.

Since last summer, the Governor has taken a series of steps to close nearly $2 billion of the projected revenue gap, including ordering spending restrictions of 8 percent on all state agencies; eliminating duplicate and inefficient programs; restructuring debt; imposing a freeze on new hires, out-of-state travel and the purchase of new equipment; using special funds and maximizing federal stimulus funds.

On May 28, the Council on Revenues revised its forecast by an additional $730 million shortfall for the remainder of fiscal year 2009 which ends on June 30, 2009, and the two-year budget that begins July 1, 2009 and ends June 30, 2011, requiring the Administration to identify further savings.

Because employee salaries and fringe benefits account for 70 percent of the State's operating budget, it is now necessary to impose furloughs on State workers to help close the remaining gap in the State's budget. The furlough savings will account for 25 percent of the total of budget savings that the State must achieve to close the projected $2.7 billion revenue gap.

If the furloughs are not implemented, the State would have to lay off at least 2,500 Executive Branch employees to make up for the projected revenue shortfall. Such layoffs could also result in the shut-down of entire programs and services. State executive departments are preparing layoff plans in the event that the public worker unions are successful in blocking the implementation of the furlough plan.

In addition to these layoffs, the Department of Education and the University of Hawai`i will have their general fund budgets reduced by $278.4 million and $106.8 million, respectively, as part of their share of the labor savings.

• Learn more about the Lingle-Aiona Administration's furlough plan for the State of Hawai`i.