MORE THAN 5% OF STATE'S POPULATION

Are public workers really taking a disproportionate hit? We have more than 70,000 state employees, which exceeds 5 percent of the Hawai'i population.

By comparison, the Census Bureau says the number of public workers in the other states, including debt-ridden California, is less than 2 percent of population.

I wonder why the Legislature can't find the root of our budget problem?

Paul Miller | Kane'ohe

GOV. MARK SANFORD

BETTER MONITORING NEEDED AT AIRPORTS

Who was watching the store or, better yet, the door?

Here we have a governor from South Carolina, surely highly visible, able to depart the country for a foreign country, be gone for four days and then return unannounced.

Where was the TSA, where was immigration?

Are there no watch lists or alerts posted at the airlines and ports for such instances?

Maybe they were too busy watching the borders for all those illegals wanting to work at all those low-paying jobs we have to offer — makes you wonder.

John Rupert | Honolulu

FURLOUGHS

CUTTING LIBRARY HOURS HURTS USERS

I am at one of Manoa Library's computers and conveying my utterly abysmal feeling on Hawai'i's furlough situation.

I stopped by the reference desk and asked how a three-day furlough situation would affect the libraries here in Hawai'i. The answer was: "Still to be determined," and "check with your legislator."

I feel that if library hours were cut three days each month, it would be an abysmal, terrible situation for library users like me.

I hope and pray that through arbitration/mediation and meeting halfway, a suitable compromise will be reached and we won't have three-day furloughs in place here during this recessionary 2009 year in beautiful, wonderful Hawai'i, so as many library hours can be saved for the library users like me, especially the children/students here.

Frankie Kam | Honolulu

MORE TIME SHOULD BE SPENT NEGOTIATING

Whatever happened to bargaining in good faith?

Our governor has shown no respect in her dealings with government workers and sets a very poor example for employer/employee relations in her single-solution plan to solve the state's financial situation. Her attitude toward her employees and subsequent spin is insulting at the least.

I am sure that by now she certainly would have realized some union concessions had she been transparent and fair in her political and media posturing at the onset, and come up with a more far-sighted and comprehensive plan.

Her actions were a poor excuse for a Hail Mary; more time at the bargaining table and less time in front of the cameras would have us all in a much better place right now.

MJ Culvyhouse | Kane'ohe

TAXES

EXCISE TAX DIFFERS FROM SALES TAX

Natalia Lugani (Letters, June 24) compares "our tax" to California's (and other states') sales tax and reasons that "raising the excise tax by 1 or 2 percent seems justified." Comparing an excise tax to a sales tax is like comparing apples to oranges. By its very nature, an excise tax is already higher in tax burden than its equivalent sales tax.

It is this convoluted thinking that makes it so easy for politicians to raise taxes.

And by the way, "our tax" on O'ahu is 4.5 versus 4 percent to pay for the rail system (and since it is an excise tax, is the equivalent of probably 7 or 8 percent sales tax).

R.D. Greenamyer | Mililani

LEEWARD BEACHES

PASSION FOR BEING GREEN SIMPLY NOT EVIDENT

I spent most of the day on Thursday and early Friday trying to reach my representatives and find out their position on the "cap and trade" bill that was to be voted on Friday.

While many calls were made, neither representative's office could give an answer, saying Abercrombie and Hirono were still formulating their opinion. Really? No one in their respective offices could give a figure, either, as to how much it would cost us here in the Islands.

I must say it came as no surprise that they voted lock-step in the affirmative.

What truly bothers me is the hypocrisy of their so-called cry for the environment, yet every day I pass by tent cities where there are no sanitation facilities, rubbish piled everywhere blowing all around, and vehicles in various stages of repair with oil all over the ground. Where is the outrage from the environmentalists on that blight? Can those beaches be used and enjoyed by the public? No. It is disingenuous to cry green on one hand while turning a blind eye to the mess that has become our beaches on the Leeward Coast.

Melissa Lauer | Wai'anae