Taxpayers deserve better!

It’s that simple.

An accused cocaine trafficker should never have been allowed to cash in unused sick and vacation time, as the Herald reported he did. In no company on earth would former Western Massachusetts Deputy Director LaMar Cook be allowed to pull that off.

Sadly, Gov. Maura Healey’s office of Administration & Finance let that happen.

Cook was fired after being arrested in October in a wild case where State Police said they intercepted 21 kilograms of cocaine being shipped to the Springfield State Office where he worked. That office is Healey’s outpost. We’ll address that staggering amount of coke later, but someone needs to answer to this “error,” as A&F calls it.

The implications are infuriating. A top aide entrusted with giving the region vital representation is accused of instead running a cocaine mill. So why allow him to boost his pay by cashing in unused sick and vacation days? Did he use any of those days for his side gig? That’s an obvious question.

Did anyone in A&F actually laugh at that brazen payroll gambit? We’re not laughing. Why not? Because it’s your hard-earned, legally obtained money that they paid an alleged major cocaine trafficker. All that and UMass is just up the road, where taxpayers also dig deep for a great college education.

Is anyone in the Massachusetts government awake?

LaMar Cook was paid $130,227 last year, state Comptroller records studied by the Herald show. That was off a base salary of $98,789 and a “buyout” that totaled $31,439. Granted, we had to do some detailed accounting, but why didn’t the highly paid A&F honchos do the same math?

Please call us because there’s only one logical answer — we care more about taxpayers than the Healey administration does!

For 19 years, the Herald has rolled out our “Your Tax Dollars at Work” report to catch payroll abuses. LaMar Cook’s case is Exhibit A today.

When we pointed out this insanity late Monday, the governor’s team scrambled and spat back this excuse: “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.”

On background, whatever that’s supposed to mean, A&F added that “in error, the Human Resources Division provided Lamar Cook with unused vacation pay from his time in the administration and at Hotel UMass. The administration has been actively working to recover these funds and will take legal action as necessary.”

In journalism, “on background” is reached by mutual agreement. The governor’s people are trying to manage the fallout from this story and didn’t call. They just emailed — and they sure do know our number.

This is indicative of the dismal attitude too many public servants have toward taxpayer money. Taxes are climbing and the very least should be the buck stops here attitude.

Twenty-one kilos of cocaine is worth north of $1 million on the street and that’s not even accounting for it being cut, as it often is, with lethal fentanyl.

For God’s sake, anyone tied to this brand of deadly poison should never be allowed to cash in vacation and sick days. This is far more than an “error” — it’s an injustice.