By The Star Staff
The Puerto Rico Senate in a loud voice vote on Thursday passed legislation that would increase the salaries of judges, but the bill faces uncertainty in the House of Representatives.
In several interviews, House Speaker Rafael “Tatito” Hernández Montañez has insisted that he will address, after the June primaries, the legislation on salary increases for judges and other government officials.
Senate Bill 1400, penned by Senate President José Luis Dalmau Santiago, had been referred to the Senate Legal Committee by Dalmau Santiago himself.
The bill calls for increases of 24%, to $154,556, in the salaries of judges; 20% to bring the salaries of associate judges to $144,480; 24% to bring those of appellate judges to $130,579; 32% to bring the salaries of senior judges to $118,133; and 32% to bring those of municipal judges to $91,764.
The Financial Oversight and Management Board said some $12 million is in the custody of the government’s Office of Management and Budget for the salaries.
As reported by the STAR, House Treasury Committee Chairman Jesús Santa Rodríguez noted earlier this week that the budget for the next fiscal year, which begins on July 1, amounts to $13 billion and did not include the salary hike for judges.
On Feb. 2, a judge determined that a budget resolution approved by the Legislature provided for the concession of the salary increase to judges. The resolution contained a portion of $11.2 million for the raises. The House had tried to withdraw the resolution after conditioning the judges’ salary hike on a similar hike to the legislators’ salaries.
The oversight board has said that despite what the court has ruled, the matter should be decided by the Legislature and the executive branch.