A Union President Says Tax Hikes Could Save Teacher Jobs
He represents about 13,000 public school teachers and played a central role during the Furlough Fridays negotiations. Wil Okabe, president of the Hawaii State Teachers Association, answered questions from Civil Beat about the state of education in Hawaii and the challenges the state faces in the wake of furloughs and budget deficits.
CIVIL BEAT: We’re still in a recession. How many of Hawaii’s teachers will lose their jobs in the next year if the state isn’t given federal bailout funds? Is there something that can be done locally to save the jobs?
WIL OKABE: We proposed an increase in state income taxes on those with more than $200,000 in taxable income. We also supported the proposal for a temporary increase in the state general excise tax to pay for education and other essential services. These proposals may have to be revisited next year if the economic situation doesn鈥檛 improve.
We had tried to look at some tax increase for the wealthy that would not touch all citizens, but maybe the top 10-20 percent. That was brought up as one of the bills in the house and senate, but it didn’t pass. It was to increase the GET. That was another measure that HSTA wanted to do. We really felt that education is really the biggest budget item for the state, but in every state it is the biggest budget item. We believe education also touches a lot of the other areas of the economy. Having a college or a public education system that is strong basically helps the economy.
During Furlough Fridays discussions, what was the most difficult part of the negotiating process for you? Is there anything about the way HSTA handled the discussions that you would go back and change if you could?
The most difficult part of the negotiating process was agreeing to any furlough days. We were originally asked to take 36 furlough day, which would have been devastating to the students. Through negotiations we were able to reduce the number to 17. That was still too high, but the reality of the DOE budget left us no choice.
Are you satisfied with how Furlough Fridays were resolved? On the one hand, it allowed everyone to stay in their own corners. Do you think it was the best way to resolve the crisis?
While we are glad the legislature appropriated the funds for next year and the governor signed the appropriation bill, we would have preferred that funding be provided for the remainder of this year, as well as next.
The same funds that were used to end furloughs could have been appropriated by executive order a year ago. There was no need to wait until the end of the 2010 school year to provide the funds. Since the funding came from a special fund and not from the State General Fund, no one can claim that it was the budget crunch that held up the funding or restricted the amount of funds available to restore all instructional days. The Hurricane Relief Funds were there all along, and there was more than enough money in this fund鈥攚hich will never be used for its original purpose–to have avoided furloughs altogether.
In other states, teachers took salary cuts to preserve teaching days. I know we talked about this once before, but can you tell our members why teacher pay cuts were not considered during the negotiations to resolve Furlough Fridays? If the teachers are locked into a contract, why not supplement the contract like UH professors did theirs?
Again, HSTA鈥檚 policy is not to discuss negotiations strategy (past, present or future) away from the bargaining table. At this point, as we enter into negotiations on the 2011-2013 contract, all options are open for consideration.
DISCUSSION: Should a tax increase for the wealthy be part of the solution to budget woes for the Department of Education? Weigh in on the conversation.
