HONOLULU — When state officials and the Hawaii Government Employees Association kick off a binding arbitration hearing on a new labor contract on Friday, the only person whose opinion will matter is Philip Tamoush.

Tamoush is the neutral member of a three-member arbitration panel that will hear the case. It also will include one representative each from the state and the union.
That makes Tamoush a tiebreaker, a present-day King Solomon, charged with devising a bridge over what so far has been a very wide divide.
The state already has reduced spending by billions of dollars, with more cuts on the way.
Given that, the panel is likely to decide how many fewer dollars HGEA’s nearly 30,000 members will earn in coming years. A ruling is due by Dec. 21.