The biggest piece of the effort to discourage “spiking” would be a cap on non-base pay (read: overtime) when the Hawaii Employees’ Retirement System calculates pension benefits for retiring public workers.

But the reason we share it in Inside Honolulu is the suggestion that the individual counties should be on the hook for the extra costs from pension spiking by their employees. For the City and County of Honolulu, that could represent millions of dollars per year.

Nanea Kalani reached out to mayor Peter Carlisle‘s office for comment, and got the following response from press secretary Louise Kim McCoy after the story had been published:

Mayor Carlisle is well aware of the ERS unfunded liability issue and supported the reforms that were passed by the State Legislature last year. Mayor Carlisle is in favor of responsible reform that is fair and equitable. We have not received and need to review the details of the proposed legislation prior to commenting. Therefore, it is premature to respond with any specifics at this time. As discussed during today’s legislative briefing, the capping of overtime for ERS purposes might be a prudent approach to the overtime spiking issue.