Supreme Court joins opposition to housing allowance cut

The Supreme Court has opposed a proposed measure that will eliminate housing allowance because it will disrupt the high court’s operation as majority of the law clerks are off-island hires.

In a letter to Rep. Dino M. Jones, chair of the Judicial and Governmental Operations, Director of Court Margarita M. Palacios said the Supreme Court has three law clerks hired from California receiving housing subsidies ranging from $600 to $800 per month.

House Bill 12-034 proposes to significantly reduce or in some cases to completely eliminate all forms of government houses and subsidies. According to Rep. Jones, the bill is very relevant at this time when essential public services and programs compete for the limited and declining government revenues.

Ms. Palacios said the Supreme Court has no choice but to hire law clerks from off-island because the CNMI does not have sufficient attorneys who would like to take the job. Most government lawyers move into private practices upon completion of their employment contracts, she added.

However, should the bill become a law, Ms. Palacios said the housing allowance should be converted into salaries in order to retain their employees and make their salaries comparable to other government departments and private law firms.

Earlier, Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio has asked the committee to seriously study the consequences of passing the bill because it will adversely affect the delivery of basic services to the community.

“Until the Commonwealth educates and retains sufficient numbers of local citizens to fill the positions currently requiring outside recruitment, we must continue to (provide housing) to be able to attract and retain such employees from outside,” Mr. Tenorio said.

The governor noted the difficulty in competing with the U.S. mainland due to budgetary and statutory limitations on salaries. He said the housing benefit has helped entice off-island employees provide vitally needed services for the community.

“The loss of this benefit will most certainly have an adverse effect and could endanger our ability to continue to provide these services,” the governor added.

Employees who will be most affected by the bill are nurses, medical technicians, physicians and other health care workers as well as professionals in other fields.

Various government agencies depending on off-island employees have expressed concern on the island’s ability to retain and recruit health care and other professional staff.