Right here’s a suggestion for a brand new Massachusetts motto: “Dwelling massive on the taxpayers’ dime.”
The Herald’s evaluation of Massachusetts Lawyer Basic Andrea Campbell’s procurement card bills is simply the newest instance of how Bay Staters are the de facto ATM for state leaders.
Campbell spent practically $300,000 on her taxpayer-funded bank card final fiscal yr, with bills starting from touring to France and St. Thomas to internet hosting an annual vacation social gathering, the Herald evaluation exhibits.
Should be good.
Granted, Campbell was in France final yr for a convention “solely centered on commemorating and paying tribute to the achievements and sacrifices of those that fought in Normandy,” because the Related Press reported. Honoring the heroes of Normandy is laudable, particularly on the eightieth anniversary of D-Day. Why Campbell and firm paid homage virtually two months after the historic date is baffling, however she did get some good rides by Avis Chauffeur. Price to us: $9,000.
The AG’s workplace confirmed some like to native companies, spending $1,220 on meals from Anna’s Taqueria for an annual vacation gathering that the workplace’s Public Safety and Advocacy Bureau held final December. The P-card additionally coated $1,287 for a late October gathering on the Dubliner in Boston to “acknowledge (the Massachusetts State Police’s) profitable high-profile takedown involving a high-profile drug trafficking investigation.”
All advised, from July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025, her workplace’s P-card spending value taxpayers some $288,146.26. Hope these burritos from Anna’s got here with loads of guac.
However Campbell is hardly an outlier. Taxpayers are footing the invoice for Gov. Maura Healey’s largesse in giving state legislators an 11% pay increase initially of the yr. What number of Bay Staters not working authorities jobs obtained an 11% increase this yr?
We’ve already forked out $1 billion-plus to shelter and look after the inflow of migrants to the state and homeless folks. That features $30,000 for repairs at a resort shelter for migrants and homeless households.
The state Government Workplace of Housing & Livable Communities spent $30,273.92 on repairing damages that it decided to be “outdoors the scope of regular put on and tear,” on the Clarion Resort in Taunton, in response to knowledge obtained by the Herald.
Lodges are “chargeable for their very own upkeep and for any prices related to regular put on and tear which can be a part of their commonplace working prices,” housing officers have stated.
Not in Massachusetts, apparently, not when these accommodations develop into emergency shelters. Final summer time, the Clarion was reimbursed $6,450.00 – the state’s largest expenditure – for a carpet substitute and repairs to wallpaper and a damaged window, in response to the info. That got here two months after the state spent $6,178.13 to switch a carpet and sprinkler heads.
A giant downside with all that is that taxpayers don’t be taught of such expenditures till after the very fact, and infrequently after the Herald does some digging and places in FOIA requests. It’s par for the course in a state whose legislature is dodging an audit of its books prefer it was a present basket of plutonium. Nevertheless it’s not OK.
The state is dealing with funding cuts from Washington, and Healey’s FY 26 price range isn’t with out cuts of its personal. As any enterprise is aware of, monetary headwinds name for belt-tightening.
That’s very true when the payments are paid by taxpayers.
