Judiciary’s $14.8M budget request for FY 2025 includes pay raises

The CNMI Judiciary’s budget request to the Legislature in the amount of $14.8 million for fiscal year 2025 includes a pay raise for Judiciary employees, but does not include funds to build a new courthouse on Tinian.

CNMI Supreme Court Chief Justice Alexandro C. Castro and Superior Court Presiding Judge Roberto C. Naraja said the Judiciary’s budget request for $14,889,474 includes a 10% pay raise for Judiciary employees.

For the second consecutive year, the Judiciary’s request for funds to build a new courthouse on Tinian is absent from this year’s submission, noted Castro and Naraja in a joint letter to Senate President Edith E. DeLeon Guerrero (D-Saipan) and House of Representatives Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez (Ind-Saipan).

Castro and Naraja pointed out that this omission does not signify a lack of commitment to initiating this long-awaited Tinian courthouse project, but mirrors the current financial constraints faced by the Commonwealth.

“The Judiciary remains committed to constructing a new courthouse on Tinian,” the two said, adding that the Judiciary remains resolute in its pursuit of securing funding for the courthouse project, exploring all possible avenues to fulfill this aspiration.

Highlighting the vital role of the Judiciary staff in ensuring uninterrupted judicial services at Guma’ Hustisia on Saipan, Centron Hustisia on Rota, and Kotten Tinian, Castro and Naraja said this budget request is designed to retain current personnel and expand services through requested and previously granted but unfunded number of positions.

To achieve their objectives, Castro and Naraja said, their proposal includes retention of existing NOPs, local funding for current employees supported by the American Rescue Fund Act, and approval of all requested new NOPs.

In fiscal year 2024, the Judiciary continued to leverage ARPA funding to enhance service accessibility for CNMI residents, they said, and that ARPA-funded employees played a pivotal role in advancing electronic recording, digitizing historical documents, and collaborating on the court’s new case management system scheduled for launch in 2024. They said the launch of this new system will streamline the judicial process and enhance the payment and collection processes for both the Judiciary and the Department of Finance.

“Failure to fund these positions would impede the substantial progress achieved in the last two years,” Castro and Naraja said.

While the budget submission addresses the Judiciary’s immediate needs amid the CNMI’s current financial situation, they said it does not fully encapsulate the resources required to reach their maximum potential.

For fiscal year 2024, the Judiciary was appropriated $6 million under Public Law 23-9, or the FY 2024 Appropriation Act.