Furlough Plan Backed By 2 Aspirants, Says Group

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Apr 18, 2010

The group Save Our Schools Hawaii says the two main Democrats likely to run for governor both support their "People's Plan" to restore 15 of 21 Furlough Fridays until March 15 of next year.

In a statement released yesterday, the group said Neil Abercrombie and Mufi Hannemann "are both on board."

Republican candidate Lt. Gov. Duke Aiona issued his own statement yesterday saying he doesn't support the plan announced on Friday by SOS and another parent group, Hawaii Education Matters.

Aiona said he met with Hawaii Education Matters earlier last week and said he would support a tentative plan to spend $55 million to restore 15 furlough days next year, leaving four furlough days in place for the rest of this school year and two furlough days next year.

Echoing similar comments from Gov. Linda Lingle, Aiona said the plan announced by the parent's group "would leave the furlough situation unresolved and incomplete."

Aiona's endorsement of the tentative plan differs from Lingle in that he apparently would support bringing back all workers and not just those deemed "essential."

It appears that the legislators prefer to cut salaries and jobs for our educators at the expense of our children; yet, they haven't expressed cutting their own staff and salaries. HMMMMMMMMM!

What people don't seem to realize is that our legislators are PART-TIME legislators and not full time legislators as is in many states in the U.S. Hawai'i's legislators are also paid more than many full-time legislators in the U.S.

To make matters worse, Hawai'i's legislators had passed a bill giving themselves automatic pay-raises annually. They behave like they are CEOs rather than public servants. They create backroom deals with the big businesses and corporations while neglecting the will of the people.

It's time to clean house and put them ALL out of office; clean house; and restart it the way it was meant to be: for the people, by the people, and especially of the people.

Replies

Tane April 27, 2010 at 9:02pm

It appears that the legislators prefer to cut salaries and jobs for our educators at the expense of our children; yet, they haven't expressed cutting their own staff and salaries. HMMMMMMMMM!

What people don't seem to realize is that our legislators are PART-TIME legislators and not full time legislators as is in many states in the U.S. Hawai'i's legislators are also paid more than many full-time legislators in the U.S.

To make matters worse, Hawai'i's legislators had passed a bill giving themselves automatic pay-raises annually. They behave like they are CEOs rather than public servants. They create backroom deals with the big businesses and corporations while neglecting the will of the people.

It's time to clean house and put them ALL out of office; clean house; and restart it the way it was meant to be: for the people, by the people, and especially of the people.

This reply was deleted.