Layoffs are coming next week for some of the state’s public employees because it doesn’t have enough money to pay them.

On Aug. 22, the Hawaii Health Systems Corp. wrote its 4,000 employees explaining that it would "implement a systemwide reduction in force."

The HHSC is Hawaii’s statewide public health system. It describes the current financial condition as dire.

Alice Hall, HHSC acting president and chief executive officer, said in an interview that a total of 35 union members will be laid off. Most will be from Kauai, but some workers on Maui and in Kona also will lose jobs, she said.

"We have already had nonunion layoffs; we are not filling vacancies and are consolidating," Hall said.

"We are expecting that next year there will be another wave of layoffs," she warned.

The reason the HHSC doesn’t have enough money is because the 2014 state Legislature stopped giving the hospitals emergency subsidies.

Over the years the subsidies have increased and become such a regular part of the yearly budget process it is difficult to understand why the request is always included as an emergency.

State Rep. Bert Kobayashi, a former administrator of the hospital system, says this year the Legislature purposely decided not to fund the HHSC’s entire request.

"Essentially what happened is the Legislature gave hospitals a tough-love message: ‘Here is a $101 million subsidy and we know your deficit is $150 million,’" Kobayashi said in an interview.

The state has to weigh all its responsibilities, Kobaya-shi said, arguing that it cannot fund everything.

"What is the value of hospital services on the neighbor islands? This year we said it was $100 million extra," Kobayashi said.

The operating deficit in 1996 was $7 million, according to Kobayashi.

"In 2006 they had a $38 million operating deficit. In 2010, it was $160 million," he said.

After the Legislature closed, the Hilo Medical Center, which is part of the HHSC, announced that 30 positions would be eliminated.

Also closing is the Kalaheo Clinic on Kauai.

There are two reasons for the problems.

First, most of the HHSC hospitals and clinics are in rural areas without enough patients to generate the money to pay for the costs.

Second, Medicare reductions and new pay raises for state workers mean running the hospitals costs more while the money is disappearing.

House Speaker Joe Souki is asking the House Health and Finance committees to meet up with their Senate counterparts for an emergency public hearing to figure out what to do.

"We need a correction rapidly," Souki said in an interview, adding that he would like to see the Legislature go into a special session on the hospital situation.

He worries that because Gov. Neil Abercrombie is a lame duck and state Sen. David Ige, Ways and Means chairman, is running for governor, there will not be enough emphasis put on helping the neighbor island hospitals.

"There is a need right now, but we can’t continue to just cover the costs; we are losing tons of money," Souki said.

Kobayashi said the layoffs are the "first serious response from the hospital system" that he has seen in dealing with the crisis.

There are a lot of rumored plans out there to have the Oahu private hospitals either help the HHSC, join with the HHSC or just take over the system.

New deals would have to be made with the almost politically untouchable public worker unions, and some new financing scheme would need to come into play.

The usual response when things get complicated is "too many moving parts" and the Legislature wanders away, doing nothing.

This year, there are four fellows running for governor who all are saying they are up to the job.

Coming up with a solution, not a study or a call for an audit, would be one way of measuring which one of the candidates for governor is the leader we need.

Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.