Hawaii's $8.5 billion in unfunded retirement liabilities, a national trend

HONOLULU — A new report from State Budget Solutions, a national nonprofit organization focusing on states’ fiscal responsibility, warns it’s time for newly elected state officials in Hawaii and throughout the country to address unfunded liabilities in the retirement system.

The share of Hawaii’s $30-billion unfunded liability per resident is $21,852, the seventh highest in the nation, said Joe Luppino-Esposito, the study’s author.

He said Hawaii’s Employees’ Retirement System is only 29 percent funded because the state isn’t putting enough money into the system to pay future promised benefits. The unfunded liability amounts to 41 percent of the state’s gross domestic product.

State officials paint a different — if still grim — picture, showing the pension system as 60 percent funded.

The translation in real dollars is $8.5 billion. That’s a major discrepancy from the SBS $30 billion estimate.

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