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Nor can the community, especially not Anchorage property-tax payers. Or any other school district, city or borough in the state.

But the multibillion-dollar problem affects everyone in Alaska, as everyone benefits from public education and the public services provided by retirement-system members.

The solution is obvious: Everyone in Alaska should share in paying the bill. And the fairest way to do that is to use the state treasury. Any candidate who says otherwise this campaign season is not being honest.

The Alaska Retirement Management Board recently set the employer contribution rate for school districts, cities, boroughs and state government for next year. The new rate is a bulging 54 percent of teacher payroll for school districts.

The employer contribution rate for cities, boroughs and the state and nonteacher payroll at school districts will average almost 40 percent in the next fiscal year.

For the Anchorage School District, estimated retirement system costs will be $153 million next year - six times the $25.8 million price tag of 2002-03.

The Teachers' Retirement System and Public Employees' Retirement System - operated by the state for its own employees and participating municipalities and school districts - have about $14 billion invested, earning money to cover future retirement and health insurance benefits. But the state's financial adviser says the funds are short $6.9 billion to cover the next 25 years, assuming all of the projections are correct for health care costs, longevity, retirement age, future wages and investment earnings.

That's a lot of assumptions, any of which could be wrong, so the idea is to get closer to estimated full funding and then stay in the neighborhood, riding out short-term fluctuations in investment earnings, health care costs and such.

The Retirement Management Board's job is to set the employer funding rate high enough to fill the gap. But cities and schools simply cannot afford to pay 40 percent or 54 percent of their payroll each year for the next 25 years.

Gov. Frank Murkowski acknowledged as much when he announced Monday that he will recommend to his successor that the state pay the full tab for next year's retirement system increase. That will total $500 million to cover the effect on state, municipal and school district budgets.

The governor also recommended the state write a $500 million check to the retirement systems next year. It's just like making an extra payment - a big one - on your home mortgage to save interest and pay off the debt quicker.

But with oil prices falling below $62 a barrel Thursday - the lowest price since March and down almost $14 from their peak - there may not be as much of a surplus sitting in the state treasury next year as the governor would like. The retirement system debt will still be with us, however.

Whether from oil revenues or, dare we say it, from the earnings of the $34 billion Permanent Fund, the new governor and legislators need to plan for annual payments to the retirement funds to help reduce the catch-up cost to cities and schools. Maybe the answer is $350 million a year for the next 10 years and then to reassess the numbers at that time.

Meanwhile, our elected leaders also should look at whether last year's overhaul of retirement benefits for new employees has hurt or helped the funding problem.

Regardless of the answer, the system is underfunded. Just sending the bill to schools and cities is not acceptable.