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Posted: Wednesday, June 20th, 2012 8:51 AM HST

Hawaii faces challenge with unpaid public retirement obligations

By Ken Hupp - 67AM KPUA News

Numerous states are facing an uphill challenge making good on unpaid obligations to public retirement funds that ballooned as the recession caused them to divert scarce money to more immediate concerns. The Pew Center found that 34 states, including Hawai`i, failed to maintain safe levels of money in their pension funds which most experts agree is about 80 percent of long-term obligations. As of 2010 Hawai`i had funded just 61 percent of its $18.5 billion obligation for public sector workers and had a $14 billion unfunded retiree health care liability, ranking it 10th worst in the nation.