The state Legislature must know some three-legged folks, because since last week, the other shoe has fallen three times.

First, the public school teachers happily ratified a new contract that will give them a series of 3 percent pay raises, estimated to cost $300 million more over the life of the contract.

That was followed by the United Public Workers agreement for about 9,000 state and county blue-collar workers. The UPW contract was jokingly called the "Frank De Lima contract" because it is structured like De Lima’s TV ad: "Two-two, Two-two."

Instead of calling a cab, the contract calls for a series of four 2 percent raises over the next four years. The state and county blue-collar workers are usually the ones still working for the least amount of money when all the big shots go home, so the janitors and cafeteria workers deserve to enjoy the magic of compounding. Their raises are roughly estimated to be around $200 million more over four years.

Then, over the weekend, the third shoe fell. The Hawaii Government Employees Association announced the settlement of contracts for about 20,000 state and county workers. Most will get 4 percent a year more during the two years of the contract. Cost estimates have not yet been released.

For almost all of the contracts, the state will go back to the old 60-40 split on medical insurance payment, with the state picking up 60 percent of the plans.

These settlements come after state and county workers had their 5 percent pay cuts restored. That money was taken during the hard days of the fast-receding recession that started during the last years of Gov. Linda Lingle’s administration.

These contracts are a really big deal. If you are a county or state worker, it will mean a lot more extra money, which is a good thing. If you spend it, that should help the local economy.

The local economy will need it because it will have to pay for the increased state and county budgets.

By way of comparison, I asked the Hawaii Employers Council, which surveys local private companies, both union and non-union, about the labor contracts.

One of the differences between government and business is that operating increases in government are passed on to the taxpayer. In private business, sometimes the costs of doing business just have to be eaten and not passed on.

Government can raise taxes and fees; business can’t always raise its rates.

"We’ve been involved in seven (private sector) settlements in 2013; workers in these contracts are looking at an overall 1.43 percent first-year increase," said Shari-Ann Lau Clark, general counsel for the Employers Council.

The big raises given government workers are more than what the Employers Council had been projecting in the private sector, where the increase was predicted to be more like 2 percent. But, some larger firms were signaling they would have increases of 3 percent.

In times of increased revenues, such as now, big public worker pay raises will mean two things:

Legislative leaders will have their hands tied and say they have to pay for the worker pay raises and therefore will have to reject the more extravagant money bills still floating around.

And, no matter what you think of Gov. Neil Abercrombie, smiling public workers make it more difficult to vote him out of office next year.

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Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.