Gov. Linda Lingle said yesterday that it is premature for her to suggest how to close projected deficits in the state's two-year budget until the state Council on Revenues updates its forecast in March.

The governor said she may urge state House and Senate leaders to consider altering their internal timeline for work on the budget this session because of the extraordinary economic situation. The House is scheduled to finish its draft of the budget in mid-March, a week after the council meets, and send it over to the Senate for review.

Lingle and House and Senate leaders believe the council could again lower the revenue forecast.

"While I know there are some who feel they want to have the whole plan right now, it's just not realistic at this time," the governor said before giving a speech in Waikiki. "The session has just barely opened. We're not even a month into it. We have weeks to go, and there will be changes in the revenue projections."

State Rep. Marcus Oshiro, D-39th (Wahiawa), chairman of the House Finance Committee, said the governor did not discuss adjusting the internal budget timeline during a meeting with House leaders yesterday afternoon. He said putting off the budget could delay work on other bills that have a finance component.

Oshiro also disagreed with Lingle's assessment that it is too soon for her to provide budget details. "It's not premature," he said. "It's late and it's overdue."

Lingle said that since the Legislature's internal budget timeline is not set by law, it can be adjusted.

But state Sen. Donna Mercado Kim, D-14th (Halawa, Moanalua, Kamehameha Heights), chairwoman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, said the timeline is structured so the budget process can be publicly transparent and fit within the 60-day session.

"The better alternative would be for her to fulfill her responsibility as executive leader and give us the budget she was supposed to give us," Kim said, adding that the administration could provide contingency plans in the event of a lower council forecast.

Lingle's staff encouraged reporters to attend her speech because the governor wanted the opportunity to address criticism from lawmakers over the past few weeks.

The governor's proposed two-year budget, released in late December, became outdated after the council lowered the revenue forecast in January. Since then, the administration has released a strategy to get through this fiscal year and suggested a range of options for the two-year budget.

Lingle has warned that state workers should expect salary and benefit cuts and that tax credits and exemptions could be reduced or eliminated.

Yesterday, the governor acknowledged lawmakers' anxiety but said it was too early to provide specifics with the revenue forecast in flux. She said her administration would offer a detailed revision to her original two-year budget after the council meets in March.

Her budget advisers have estimated a $315.4 million deficit in fiscal year 2010 and a $549.8 million deficit in fiscal year 2011.

Lingle also said President Obama's economic stimulus package could provide more money to Hawai'i and could factor into budget deliberations. One estimate by the U.S. Senate Democratic Policy Committee suggests the stimulus could bring more than $800 million in benefits to the state, although administration officials and lawmakers are cautious about counting on a federal windfall to solve the budget gap.

Lingle said her administration has formed a committee, led by her chief of staff, Barry Fukunaga, to analyze how the stimulus package might benefit Hawai'i. But the Republican governor also said she is not actively lobbying Congress for the stimulus package and agrees with some of the criticism from Republicans, particularly that there is not enough emphasis on housing.

State House Speaker Calvin Say, D-20th (St. Louis Heights, Palolo Valley, Wilhelmina Rise), has proposed several politically painful suggestions to reduce state spending, including extending the retirement age for public workers and reducing state and county contributions to the retirement fund for public workers who retire before the Medicare age.

Say told The Advertiser last month that he felt compelled to make the proposals in part because of a lack of specifics from Lingle. Randy Perreira, executive director of the Hawai'i Government Employees Association, told KHON on Wednesday that Say appeared to be targeting public workers and retirees for the bulk of the pain.

Lingle said yesterday that Say had displayed political courage.

"I think it took a lot of courage, and people should recognize he's not proposing all of these things, he's keeping them alive so that our options are maximized," the governor said. "And I appreciate him very much doing that and I don't want him to take hits unfairly."