By The Star Staff
House Finance Committee Chairman Jesús Santa Rodríguez said Tuesday that in order to include salary increases for judges as a budget item for the next fiscal year, he will wait for legislation to be approved as a condition of including the allocation in the budget resolution.
“To be able to put through a salary increase, you need a law. And … even the letter submitted by the [Financial Oversight and Management] Board, at that time, specifies it,” Santa Rodriguez said at a press conference. “Which is why money was taken out in the custody of the Office of Management and Budget. The governor has already submitted a bill. What I believe here is that all parties must sit down to reach an agreement. As long as there is no law that stipulates what the increases are going to be, whatever they are, there is no way for you to put money in that budget, responsibly.”
“I’m not going to put it on. In other words, there has to be a law and there has to be consensus,” the legislator added. “What I’m doing is forcing them to sit down and reach a consensus, to reach an agreement. That’s the responsible thing to do; that’s what the country expects.”
In several interviews, House Speaker Rafael “Tatito” Hernández Montañez has insisted that after the June primary he will address legislation on salary increases for judges and other government officials.
Santa Rodríguez, along with Reps. Domingo Torres García and Deborah Soto Arroyo, released the schedule of public hearings for the evaluation of the budget for fiscal year 2024-2025, which begins on July 1.