HONOLULU -- City and state officials are wary of the growing under-funded pension of government workers.

Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle spent much of Thursday morning meeting with city and county workers who decided to retire this month. He thanked them for their service, some of whom decided to step down from public service after 40 years.

George Kawakami, who started as a programmer in the Information and Technology Department is moving on,

He recalled the changes over the years, including going from the first terminals to wireless.

“In fact, it was hard for us to believe going from IBM cards, that we could actually perform our tasks on a screen,” chuckled Kawakami.

That may have been a leap of faith but now some are wondering if the government benefits will be there after decades of service. The city said in fiscal year 2008, it paid $97 million into the ERS for its retirees.

In the past six months, another 160 city workers put in for retirement.

“If we don’t get a handle on it, we are not going to have less money for the retirees, we are going to have no money. If we continue to pay out the amounts we are paying out, we are going to go belly up,” said Mayor Carlisle.

The state Employees Retirement System said that between June and December 2010, 427 workers decided to retire. A good portion of that number includes teachers and principals in the Department of Education.

The DOE said this past year a total of 461 educators and administrators turned in their papers.

House Speaker Calvin Say said two years ago he proposed to begin putting money aside to address the under-funding issue. Say said the bill died in committee.

Say is waiting for recommendations from the Employees Retirement System as to how the state can tackle the problem. Among the options to rein-in costs is to limit the benefits for new government employees.