Money topped the public debate in 2011 as the state battled what ballooned into a $1.3 billion budget deficit.

We’ve since dug out of that hole thanks to tax hikes and restricted spending. Now Gov. Neil Abercrombie is proposing a bigger budget for the upcoming 2013 fiscal year.

A lot happened outside the Capitol realm, too. In December, we also launched the Hawaii Money Blog — Power, Influence and Impact, where you can keep up with the beat.

Here’s a look at some of the exclusive money stories Civil Beat brought its readers this past year.

• More Than Just a Paycheck: How Public Compensation Stacks Up in Hawaii, March 3, 2011: Hawaii public employees on average get fringe benefits that amount to an additional 60 percent of an employee’s salary. As the governor and lawmakers looked to trim benefits to help rein in the deficit, we compared the compensation packages for a sampling of state and private-sector jobs.

• How Realistic is Hawaii Pension Fund’s New Expected Rate of Return?, April 26, 2011: To help save money, lawmakers approved lowering the public pension system’s expected rate of return. But not by much. Will it work?

• How Much Hawaii Legislature’s Tax Hikes Will Cost You, May 2, 2011: Hawaii taxpayers are on the hook for about $600 million in new tax revenue to help pay for the state’s new two-year budget. Here’s a look at the five major tax measures, who they’ll hit and what the impacts could look like.

• Restoring Furloughs to Cost State of Hawaii More Than $160 Million, June 14, 2011: In order to tally up how much restoring furloughs will cost taxpayers, Civil Beat went through all 596 pages of budget worksheets.

• Hawaii Lawmakers Accept More Than $137,000 in Gifts, July 11, 2011: Peanut butter sandwiches, all-expense-paid trips to Washington, D.C., and an iPad were among the gifts Hawaii lawmakers accepted during the last year.

• Newsmaker: Interview with Hawaii Chief Information Officer Sonny Bhagowalia, Sept. 9, 2011: Civil Beat did an on-camera interview with the state’s chief information officer, who’s been charged with an ambitious mission from Abercrombie: “Transform Hawaii’s outdated technology infrastructure into a modern system that will make government more efficient and improve services for the people of Hawaii.”

• Hawaii State Salaries 2012: Fewer Employees, Higher Costs, Sept. 20, 2011: Despite growing its operating budget for the 2011 fiscal year, Hawaii state government has yet to restore its work force to pre-recession levels, according to an analysis by Civil Beat. The story includes a searchable database with all state employees for the 2011 and 2012 fiscal years. You can search by first and last name, department, job title, salary range and year.

• Analysis: Tax Review Commission Has Some Teeth, Sept. 28, 2011: As a review commission began the twice-a-decade task of evaluating the state’s tax code, we looked back at how successful past panels have been at getting tax reforms approved.

• Hawaii Retirement System Looks to Curb Pension Scams, Oct. 21, 2011: Hawaii’s public employees may no longer be able to boost their retirement benefits by “spiking” their pay through things like overtime.

• Hawaii Completes 2010 Financials 16 Months Later, Oct. 26, 2011: Lack of staff, furloughs and an antiquated accounting system set back the state’s annual financial report for fiscal year 2010 more than 16 months after the end of the budget year.

• Hawaii 2010 Legislative Campaigns Raked in $5 Million in Total Contributions, Dec. 15, 2011: Candidates running for the Hawaii Legislature last year raked in nearly $5 million in total contributions — and spent just as much.