Gov. Maura Healey’s administration is racing to grab back some of the cash paid to an alleged cocaine trafficker in a year full of high salaries collected by state employees who were fired, indicted, or accused of poor performance.

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Gov. Maura Healey’s 2025 office payroll: Your Tax Dollars at Work

It’s all part of the Herald’s “Your Tax Dollars at Work” analysis that on Monday night had the governor’s office admitting they screwed up with former top aide LaMar Cook.

LaMar Cook

Cook, the governor’s ex-Western Massachusetts deputy director, was arrested in October after State Police intercepted 21 kilograms of cocaine being shipped to the Springfield State Office, where he worked. He has since been fired from his job after pleading not guilty, but he was paid $130,227 last year, records show.

That was off a base salary of $98,789 and a “buyout” that totaled $31,439.

The Healey’s Administration and Finance office said Monday night it was an “error” to pay Cook “unused vacation pay” after the Herald sought an explanation. The governor’s office is scrambling to get the money back, a spokesman added.

“Taxpayer dollars should never go to an individual who engaged in this type of outrageous criminal activity. This payment was erroneously made and we have taken action to get it back,” an A&F spokesman added.

The spokesman, Matt Murphy, added the agency “will take legal action as necessary.”

Monica Tibbits-Nutt

The ousted MassDOT secretary of transportation took home $171,938 in 2025, records show. She did not cash in any unused time but did leave money on the table. Her “annual rate” is listed at $206,496.

Healey’s office made the announcement that MBTA chief Phil Eng was taking over in October. Tibbits-Nutt was allowed to stay on until the end of the year in an advisory capacity. Eng was paid his MBTA base salary of $509,114. He did receive a $30,000 bump for a category listed on the state payroll as “a14,” an object code used for recording “stipends, bonus pay, and awards.” Still, Eng picked up the pieces when Tibbits-Nutt was shown the door.

State Rep. Chris Flanagan

Flanagan was paid $111,565 last year. He was arrested in April on federal charges that he stole tens of thousands of dollars from a trade association he worked for, covered up the thefts, and then used the money to pay personal bills and fund his campaign for elected office. He has pleaded not guilty.

His base pay as a state representative is the uniform $81,657, but he too benefited from an “a14” bump of $29,908 for added responsibilities in the state Legislature.

Michael Proctor

The worst of the Karen Read State Police investigators, who was fired from his job over that case, was paid a measly $3,617 last year. That was all from a “buyout” of unused sick and vacation days. He had long been suspended from his six-figure job without pay.

Sgt. Yuriy Bukhenik

Proctor’s boss in the State Police earned $223,342 last year. Bukhenik is now on a “temporary duty assignment” at the Division of Standards and Training in the Framingham headquarters, the MSP announced in July. 

That didn’t stop him from logging $37,175 in overtime and $54,141 in a category labeled “a20” — used for police detail pay.

Norfolk DA Michael Morrissey

The embattled district attorney was paid $223,442 and is up for reelection. His work was tied to the dismal performance of his lead State Police investigators in the Karen Read case. He is also tied to the lack of prosecution in the death of Sandra Birchmore, a 23-year-old Canton resident who federal authorities say was strangled to death in 2021 by a Stoughton cop while pregnant.

Morrissey, 70, has yet to announce whether he intends to run for a fifth, four-year term in November’s election. He has served as Norfolk County’s lead prosecutor since being elected in 2010. Opponents are lining up for his job.

Judge Shelley Joseph

The judge earned $207,855 this past year. This, as a Commission on Judicial Conduct hearing officer ruled in November, that she should receive a public reprimand for impropriety for allowing an illegal immigrant to slip past ICE officers in a Newton court in 2018. She now serves in the Boston Municipal Court.

Judge Beverly Cannone

The Norfolk Superior Court judge was tossed into the Karen Read storm for both the first and second trials. Like Joseph, she was paid a judge’s base pay of $207,855.

Send your tips and questions to joed@bostonherald.com as we work on this 19th-annual “Your Tax Dollars at Work” rolling report.

Gov. Maura Healey (Matt Stone/Boston Herald)