Should the government be dishing out another round of pay raises at this time?

At least one senator is questioning not just the timing, but the way the administration wants to do it.

Republican Chris Duenas said salary increases are supposed to be vetted through the annual budget process.

So lawmakers can better decide if GovGuam can actually afford them.

Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero recently approved a 22 percent pay hike for a large group of executive branch employees.

She's asking the legislature to appropriate $16 million for the balance of the current fiscal year, and $31 million in FY 2024 and going forward.

Sen. Chris Denas said it's the wrong way to go about it.

"The pay raises really should come as an accompaniment of the budget process, because we need to take everything in the totality of the budget when we consider these kinds of things," he said. "The power of the purse belongs to the legislature and so the appropriation authority is already with the legislature and I think we need to discontinue this practice of not projecting these things based on the proper budgetary process."

That's because the government has a lot of critical needs to consider, and doesn't have unlimited funds to cover them.

"The question really comes down to what are our priorities. We don't have any additional officers on the street right now, our hospital is in desperate need of major repairs, our schools are falling down all around us, and our priority immediately right now in the current fiscal year is to just do an across the board pay raise," Duenas said.

He believes handing out pay raises at this time, "doesn't comport with what the people of Guam want."

In apparent response, Adelup issued a statement from administration director Edward Birn, saying in part, "this pay review...has been introduced for funding at a time when revenues are rising, not falling. There can be no better condition to support the expenditure than now when revenues outperform budget forecasts and the $16 million estimated cost for FY 2023 has already been realized in collections."

Birn added that an adjustment is overdue, as there's been no pay review in eight years.