Governor Ige's 20% Pay Cut for Hawaii State Workers is Cruel and Unacceptable
Governor Ige proposed a 20% pay cut for all Hawaii State employees in response to the COVID crisis. Even first responders and COVID frontline workers would be cut 10%. This is cruel and unacceptable.
It’s always a sign of reckless, uninspiring, and lazy governance when workers get hit first and worst. This decision isn’t a matter of “solidarity and sacrifice,” but injustice and misplaced priorities.
Reports are now saying that Ige’s own department heads didn’t know this was coming. They were blindsided through the media like the rest of us. Across the board cuts should be the last resort, following weeks of intense and uncomfortable meetings with cabinet members and key decision makers to exhaust all options.
Before any cut is made:
1. The billions we spend on tourism ads (HTA) and rail (HART) should be immediately reallocated as hazard pay to the brave working people who keep our state running.
2. The Governor should reconvene the 2020 Legislative Session to explore ways that everyone can pay their fair share during this time of crisis. That means the rich and powerful too, not just those of us who can’t afford to fund campaigns. We can start by finally letting long-standing tax cuts for Hawaii’s investment-class expire, adjusting our marginal tax rate to be more equitable, and raising the nation’s lowest tax rate on 2nd and 3rd homes.
3. We need numbers. Given how little State employees get paid, a 20% cut could push many workers underwater. Many workers will likely be required to collect State benefits, thus negating the savings the pay cut seeks to achieve.
3. The Governor should also work much more aggressively, demanding more direct financial support from the Federal Government. Now is no time for petty partisanship.
Remember that when Governor Linda Lingle cut worker pay by 13% during the 2009 recession, Hawaii’s Democratic leaders called it “draconian and heartless.” This is objectively worst, and no one is even getting “furlough” days off. As moral leaders, Democrats must hold ourselves to the same standard we hold their opponents, if not higher.
Some of our leaders are volunteering 20% cuts as an example of what it will take to get through this — and good for them. But please recognize the ability to do this is a function of privilege. Some of you live off passive income from your spouses, businesses, stocks, or savings and don’t lean on your State salary as much as others. Not to mention, your salaries are $30k–120k higher than many State employees.
It is also not a fair argument to exploit the fact that we are all struggling, and people in the private sector are getting completely laid off. Using the ill-fortune and mistreatment of some to excuse the mistreatment of others is absurd and immoral. All workers deserve better.
Consider how much worse this pandemic would be if it were not for the work of State employees. We are stuck at home, but we have running water, roads, emergency supplies, and social services to keep us safe and healthy when we need it most — only because State employees are working in hazard situations around the clock. I know, I see it everyday.
We will get through this together — but not like this — not by knee-capping the very people we all lean on. Many State employees were already being paid starvation wages, and this will devastate them, and in turn our economy. There are better ways forward, fairer ways that won’t put yet more working families on the verge of homelessness. In these trying times, we need to support our sisters and brothers who work in government more than ever.
