If you think that was a lot of turkey to digest, just wait — before we know it, the 2012 state Legislature will arrive.

Next year will be the zombie session. No, I’m not making fun of the legislators — it’s all those bills that are coming back from the dead to haunt lawmakers.

January may be too late to figure how to deal with the undead from 2011.

The most troublesome zombie heading your way is the fate of the public union contracts. Wait, you say, Gov. Neil Abercrombie wrapped them all up. Well, yes and no.

The contracts are all signed and the United Public Workers ratified its contract last week. The teachers union never got a contract: Abercrombie gave it the choice of taking the last and best final offer or the state would execute the last and best final offer, anyway, which is what he did, resulting in teachers taking what Abercrombie dictated.

But, there was one little clause in the Hawaii Government Employees Association’s contract that if any other union got a better contract than the HGEA, then its contract would be open for bargaining again. It is called the favored nation clause.

Last week the HGEA sent the state and all its entities, such as the Judiciary, the schools, the university and the hospitals, a letter "demanding that upon the completion of the UPW ratification process, the employers reopen negotiations."

"We anticipate some changes will be made to the HGEA agreements as a result of our favored nation clause," said Randy Perreira, HGEA executive director, in his letter.

Perreira said he thinks there is a "substantive difference in favor of the UPW agreements in relation to the HGEA agreement."

If all that is true, it means the HGEA, the state’s largest union, will be due more money and that’s a whole new mess of zombies walking your way.

Republican state Sen. Sam Slom worries that the current state budget doesn’t even include enough money for the existing public worker contracts and that the pay raises will have to be factored in before lawmakers can even figure out if the state can afford new raises for HGEA.

"We didn’t put in the collective bargaining money and there are going to be even more programs begging for money," Slom warns.

More zombies? With the hurricane season just about done, it may be too soon to celebrate, but there is still more money for the Legislature to find.

The last time the Legislature saw the state Hurricane Relief Fund, it took nearly all of the $40 million to pay for stuff now. But the Legislature passed a bill promising to pay it back. That means that just by coming back into session in January, the 2012 Legislature will be chasing a $40 million debt and another slew of zombies.

Now I don’t want to alarm anyone, but the biggest zombie staggering toward the Legislature is the approximately $7 billion due the state retirement system. Actuarial reports can change, but not enough to breathe some life into those staggeringly bad projections.

Of course, the $7 billion is not something that has to be paid off now, but just like the zombies in the movies, it is not going away.

My advice is to sharpen up those machetes and chain saws.

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