MLSC faced with over $80K budget shortfall

The Marianas Office of Micronesian Legal Services Corp. has warned lawmakers about the impact of the agency’s funding woes on the Commonwealth’s poor residents.

“The real effect will be felt by the indigent residents of the CNMI,” Jane Mack, directing attorney at MLSC Marianas Office, said in a letter justifying to the Legislature the free legal aid agency’s $170,000 “rock-bottom” budget request for fiscal year 2009.

“They will have a harder time getting free legal help. They will be underrepresented in important legal matters and there is a greater risk of injustice when litigants do not have competent legal guidance. There may be greater demand on the court to appoint counsel in civil cases where there is a right to counsel,” Mack added.

Mack reported that MLSC Marianas Office is now facing a budget shortfall of over $80,000. The shortfall occurred because the agency was under-funded in FY2004, and received the same funding level in the three succeeding years. In FY2007, MLSC Marianas Office got only $40,000. The agency received “virtually nothing” in FY2008.

She also described the legal aid office’s $170,000 budget proposal as “rock-bottom request.”

“If you were to appropriate more, we would put it to good use. But we understand that in these fiscally difficult times, everyone must try to get by on the least possible. Our request reflects that philosophy,” she told the Legislature.

In addition, she called on the lawmakers to provide $120,000 for the renovation of MLSC’s portion of the building at Civic Center, which was named as an historic site by the Legislature.

MLSC occupies approximately two thirds of the building and the criminal division of the Attorney General’s Office uses the other one third. The AGO has renovated its portion of the building at a cost of about $70,000. MLSC needs to do the same, said Mack.

The needed renovation, according to Mack, includes reconstruction of deteriorating exterior walls, re-wiring including conduit for computer and technological systems, new flooring, new screens and windows, and updated interior partitions.

“We desperately need to reconstruct deteriorating walls to keep rats out and protect ourselves from the termite damage. We all need to update interior partitions because, with the AG’s renovation, we lost about three from one of our attorney’s offices and it is now too small for practical use,” Mack said.

“The longer the project is delayed, the more expensive it will be because of rising costs and deterioration on site,” she added.

Micronesian Legal Services Corp. receives money from the Legal Services Corporation, a private, non-profit corporation formed by the U.S. Congress to provide civil legal aid to the indigent population.

The amount of money the Marianas Office receives from LSC depends on the number of poor persons, which is tied to the number of food stamp recipients, Census Bureau numbers, and United Nations statistics.

Based on CNMI statistics, Mack said, the MLSC-Marianas Office will receive about $288,000 from LSC in FY2009. The agency says it needs about $455,000 to operate.