State Senate President Colleen Hanabusa has joined Chief Justice Ronald Moon in suggesting that one way for state courts to deal with budget problems is to delay the appointment of new judges.

In a letter last week to Gov. Linda Lingle and Moon, Hanabusa was quick to say that she did not intend to deny Republican Lingle the "opportunity to make judicial selections."

Such appointments are among the most influential and durable actions available to a governor, particularly one such as Lingle who faces a Legislature dominated by members of an opposing political party.

Hanabusa said the idea — first raised earlier this year by Moon with state Attorney General Mark Bennett — is meant solely as a cost-saving and temporary measure.

The position of chief judge of the Intermediate Court of Appeals is currently vacant and the salary and fringe benefit costs of filling and "fully staffing" the post are an estimated $485,957, Hanabusa said in a June 30 letter.

The same salary and fringe benefit costs of filling a Circuit Court judicial vacancy are approximately $392,516, Hanabusa said. A vacancy on the Circuit bench opened July 1 with the retirement of Judge Karen Blondin, Hanabusa said.

While the amounts involved "are not significant compared to the estimated revenue loss in our state budget, I do believe the estimates represent a real budget saving opportunity for the Judiciary," the senator's letter said.

She said that she would join the governor and chief justice in a joint request to the state Judicial Selection Commission to "consider delaying" the submission of names of possible replacement judges to Lingle.

The commission screens candidates and selects a list of nominees for the governor, who then picks a candidate and sends the name along to the Senate for confirmation.

Hanabusa pointed that once the commission submits a list of nominees to the governor, the state Constitution requires that the governor and Senate act within specified periods on a nomination.

Asking the commission to delay the initial submission of names would avoid those constitutional mandates, Hanabusa wrote.

An alternative, the senator wrote, would be for the chief justice to delay swearing in a judicial nominee who had been appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate.

"While it is important for the administration of justice to have the judicial bench at full strength," Hanabusa said, the chief justice must also have flexibility to determine "essential staffing requirements."

In a letter Thursday, Moon expressed "unequivocal support" for a delay in the Judicial Selection Commission's work.

Arizona, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Utah are implementing "delays in filling judicial vacancies in light of these economic times," Moon said.

He said that he was personally "willing to delay" administering the oath of office for a new judge, but emphasized that he could only do so "with the consent and cooperation of the confirmed appointee."

Oaths of office for judicial appointees have traditionally been administered by the chief justice, Moon wrote, but noted that any individual authorized by law to administer oaths, including a notary public, could perform the duty.

Hanabusa said yesterday she had not received a response yet from the Lingle administration.