It was about seven months ago that Gov. Neil Abercrombie alerted us to what he called “an undeniable storm gathering.”

He wisely described it as just on the horizon, “far enough away that it is tempting to ignore it, as we have done for so many years.”

But ignoring it, Abercrombie feared, “could tear our social and cultural fabric to shreds.”

A portion of this approaching colossus, Abercrombie warned, was our public debt, specifically the debt we owe on public pensions and medical benefits. He estimated it to be an unfunded liability of $8 billion in retirement costs and $14 billion for medical benefits.

“Our per capita debt is the third highest in the nation, and this fact is relentlessly eroding our credit worthiness,” Abercrombie said.

This week a new national report arrived confirming again our position near the top of the debtor column.

“States with the highest combined metrics, including Hawaii, Illinois, Connecticut and Kentucky, have seen credit deterioration in recent years reflecting in part their liability burdens,” said Fitch Ratings.

If you translated that into English, it means those four states are already so far in hock, they will need to go to a loan shark to finance the next high school gym.

If public debt winds up costing the public more money, what is there to do about it?

Last year, the Legislature worked to reduce the impact of the state workers’ pension system by changing payments and benefits for new employees. Estimates have it saving as much as $92 million in this fiscal year.

Obviously $92 million offered to fill an $8 billion hole won’t work, but House Speaker Calvin Say maintains it is a start.

Blake Oshiro, Abercrombie’s deputy chief of staff, agrees that last year’s work was important. This year he reports that there is an effort to trim the issue of pension spiking — that is, the racking up of big overtime payments in the last years of a civil servant’s career to grossly inflate a pension.

But even Say acknowledges that that could save at the most only $30 million.

The big problem is not the Legislature, but the state Constitution.

The state Constitution allows for a state civil service system and it says there shall be a retirement system.

“Membership in any employee’s retirement system … shall be a contractual relationship, the accrued benefits of which shall not be diminished or impaired,” says the Constitution.

Again to put this in English, it means once they get it, you can’t mess with it.

If public employees, when they retire, get free medical insurance for the rest of their lives, then the Legislature can’t change the rules now. It isn’t a state law, it is in the Constitution, and if you want to change it, you have to change the Constitution.

That is one of the reasons public unions reach for their political action committees and wads of cash whenever someone says, “Let’s have another Constitutional Convention.”

So what about that big storm that is still headed our way?

Oshiro says the administration is still hoping to get the Legislature to pony up the money to repay the gutted Hurricane Relief Fund and Rainy Day Fund. The Legislature and Abercrombie last year snagged about $63.7 million of the Rainy Day Fund and $110 million of the Hurricane Relief Fund. The credit agencies give Hawaii big smiles and a better credit rating when those funds are filled — and when the money is gone, so are the bankers’ happy faces.

Those two funds, however, are like taking the potted plants off the lanai and closing the windows before the big storm hits: nice to do, but nothing changes the fact that the big storm is still headed our way.

Say and others deny that this year the Legislature and administration mostly are kicking the can down the road, but it does appear that the metallic cylinder is moving unimpeded down the thoroughfare.