“No one can afford to ignore the state’s runaway unfunded liability costs any longer.”
That was the warning of Joe Kent, Grassroot Institute of Hawaii vice president of research, in an op-ed published Feb. 23 in Honolulu Civil Beat.
“Adding the $12.1 billion EUTF (Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund) debt with the $12.9 billion unfunded liabilities of the state Employees’ Retirement System, Hawaii taxpayers now are on the hook for $25 billion to make good on the state’s obligations to current and retired employees and their dependents,” Kent said.
Much of that burden, he added, will be felt at the county level, where the “rising payments will eat further into county budgets this year.”
