Hawai'i compares poorly to many states when it comes to funding of future government retiree pension and health benefits, a new study by the Pew Charitable Trusts shows.

The report found that Hawai'i's state and county governments have promised at least $21.8 billion in future pension and retiree benefits, but has set aside only $10 billion of that amount. As of 2006, it had funded 65 percent of its long-term pension costs, or below the 80 percent funding level that most experts consider healthy.

The report said Hawai'i's $6.8 billion long-term bill for government retiree healthcare is the second-worst among states when viewed on a per-capita basis. That liability works out to $5,283 for each state resident. Only Connecticut was worse.

The study is an attempt to quantify how big of a bill states and local governments face when it comes to benefits owed public worker retirees. It shows that many states, not just Hawai'i, are far from meeting these long-term obligations and that nationally, states have promised at least $2.73 trillion in pension, healthcare and other retiree benefits.

The study found that only $2 trillion of this has been funded to date.

"Now we know the magnitude of this bill — and paying it will require an enormous investment of taxpayer dollars," Susan Urahn, of the Pew Center on the States, said in a press statement.

"For states that have dug themselves into a deep hole, there are no quick and easy solutions."

Georgina Kawamura, state budget director, said comparing Hawai'i to other states may be a little misleading because state government here handles some functions that county and local governments oversee elsewhere. She also said some states calculate their liability differently because they use different investment and inflation assumptions.

Nonetheless, Hawai'i is paying attention to the liability questions, and has worked to solidify pension plan funding and keep up with other states when it comes to retiree healthcare liability issues, Kawamura said. The questions about funding only pertain to future unfunded liability and there is no problem with paying retirees' benefits currently.

"When I go to national meetings, we're all talking about the same thing," Kawamura said. "I'm keeping a close watch with regard to other states."

The Pew study noted that retirement benefits for government workers has become an increasingly volatile debate as states look at what they'll owe in the future. Questions are being raised by critics about the amount being paid for government retirees when private-sector workers often don't have similar benefits.

States and local governments can't compete with the private sector in terms of salary, and have offered generous benefit packages to attract and retain workers. But as the private sector has done away with pension plans and healthcare costs have risen, some have begun looking at the cost of government retiree benefits.

The report said pensions are offered to 82 percent of public-sector employees nationally. For the private sector, the figure is 33 percent.

Even more attention is being paid to the subject now that a government accounting standards group has mandated states to determine how much they will owe in retiree healthcare benefits.

The Pew report found the following for Hawai'i: