That is how much unfunded pension debt burdens the Hillsdale Intermediate School District, according to official state audit reports. According to Hohman, Michigan currently has $28 billion of unfunded pension debt due to underfunding the system for years. Although seeing the huge debt balance on the school’s debt sheet is unsettling, North said distributing the debt to the schools helped increase awareness of the pension issues amongst districts. “When they get their paycheck, they can see how much they have to contribute to the retirement system, but then they will also see how much the district contributes to the retirement system on their behalf. “There were a lot of years where lawmakers weren’t even paying the interest costs of their debt,” Hohman said.