Editorial: Money’s tight, but not if you send bill to taxpayers

Here’s a suggestion for a new Massachusetts motto: “Living large on the taxpayers’ dime.” The Herald’s analysis of Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s procurement card expenses is just the latest example of how Bay Staters are the de facto ATM for state leaders. Campbell spent nearly $300,000 on her taxpayer-funded credit card last fiscal year, with expenses ranging from traveling to France and St. Thomas to hosting an annual holiday party, the Herald analysis shows. Must be nice. Granted, Campbell was in France last year for a conference “solely focused on commemorating and paying tribute to the achievements and sacrifices of those who fought in Normandy,” as the Associated Press reported. Honoring the heroes of Normandy is laudable, especially on the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Why Campbell and company paid homage almost two months after the historic date is baffling, but she did get some nice rides through Avis Chauffeur. Cost to us: $9,000. The AG’s office showed some love to local businesses, spending $1,220 on food from Anna’s Taqueria for an annual holiday gathering that the office’s Public Protection and Advocacy Bureau held last December. The P-card also covered $1,287 for a late October gathering at the Dubliner in Boston to “recognize (the Massachusetts State Police’s) successful high-profile takedown involving a high-profile drug trafficking investigation.” All told, from July 1, 2024, to  June 30, 2025, her office’s P-card spending cost taxpayers some $288,146.26. Hope those burritos from Anna’s came with plenty of guac. But Campbell is hardly an outlier. Taxpayers are footing the bill for Gov. Maura Healey’s largesse in giving state legislators an 11% pay raise at the beginning of the year. How many Bay Staters not working government jobs got an 11% raise this year? We’ve already forked out $1 billion-plus to shelter and care for the influx of migrants to the state and homeless people. That includes $30,000 for repairs at a hotel shelter for migrants and homeless families. The state Executive Office of Housing & Livable Communities spent $30,273.92 on repairing damages that it determined to be “outside the scope of normal wear and tear,” at the Clarion Hotel in Taunton, according to data obtained by the Herald. Hotels are “responsible for their own maintenance and for any costs associated with normal wear and tear that are part of their standard operating costs,” housing officials have said. Not in Massachusetts, apparently, not when those hotels become emergency shelters. Last summer, the Clarion was reimbursed $6,450.00 – the state’s largest expenditure – for a carpet replacement and repairs to wallpaper and a broken window, according to the data. That came two months after the state spent $6,178.13 to replace a carpet and sprinkler heads. A big problem with all this is that taxpayers don’t learn of such expenditures until after the fact, and often after the Herald does some digging and puts in FOIA requests. It’s par for the course in a state whose legislature is dodging an audit of its books like it was a gift basket of plutonium. But it’s not OK. The state is facing funding cuts from Washington, and Healey’s FY 26 budget is not without cuts of its own. As any business knows, financial headwinds call for belt-tightening. That’s especially true when the bills are paid by taxpayers. Editorial cartoon by Al Goodwyn (Creators Syndicate)