When you think about government debt, do you see it as their debt or your debt? If your first thought was theirs, then who pays for it when government overspends or overcommits and does not have the money to pay for it? We do – all of us in this state and nation.

At the federal level, there is no balanced budget requirement, and they have been overspending since 1969, creating a large and growing debt of more than $14.8 trillion ($14,800,000,000,000). See if that fits in your pocket calculator; do not let a written abbreviation reduce the magnitude of this debt in your mind.

In Hawaii, on both county and state levels, we have balanced budget amend-ments. Therefore, one could understandably believe that we have not accumulated mounting debt, but that would be incorrect. Unlike the federal government, we have balanced our spending each year for government services and programs given the balanced budget amendments, but we did not include future debt attributed to state government employee health and pension benefits in the budget. As a result, the state has an unfunded liability of $22 billion, of which Maui County owes its share.