An effort to address Hawaiʻi’s shortage of public defenders by increasing their salaries has stalled because the state agency responsible for managing their pay is also understaffed. More than six months after a 20% pay raise went into effect, attorneys’ paychecks are still short.
Last year, the Legislature set aside $1.6 million to increase public defender salaries, which for years have been out of whack with what their counterparts in county prosecutors’ offices and the Department of the Attorney General make.
But severe staffing shortages at the state Department of Budget and Finance, the agency in charge of human resources and fiscal management for the Office of the Public Defender and six other state agencies, have caused delays, according to records obtained by Civil Beat…