The Maui News - According to Maui County Finance Director Kalbert Young, the county’s investments are safe, but the county is holding more of its reserves in cash while the financial markets are in flux. However, the state Employees’ Retirement System is not insulated from the turmoil in the nation’s financial markets. The shrinking value of the retirement system for state and county workers, and rising costs for the retiree health fund, will also mean the county must pay more to cover retiree benefits, Young said. At any given time, the county is holding onto hundreds of millions of dollars that have been collected in taxes but aren’t immediately needed to pay for programs. In the past, the county has typically invested a large portion of those holdings to earn interest. Now, although the actual amount varies from day to day, the county is investing much less than usual because of higher risk and lower rates of return. “The investment strategy we have for the near term is we’re sitting on a lot of cash,” Young said. State law limits the kinds of investments the county can make to “ultra-conservative” financial products, he said, but even those have shown some risk in the current financial market.