Belt tightening — people who work in the private sector are familiar with trimming expenses when the fiscal going gets tough.

If Massachusetts politicians have heard of the concept, they’re not letting on. For our political ruling class, dialing back on travel and sundries is anathema, especially when taxpayers are footing the bill.

As the Herald reported, despite a migrant influx that’s run up monthly bills in the millions, Gov. Maura Healey’s office stayed at four and five-star hotels across the world multiple times last fiscal year, racking up thousands on taxpayer-funded credit cards for swanky digs.

Procurement card data maintained by the Office of the Comptroller shows Healey’s office tends to opt for high-end hotels.

Multiple expenditures in fiscal year 2024 confirm the governor or her staff stayed in four-star accommodations and in one instance, booked rooms at a historic five-star hotel in Quebec City with a commanding view of the Saint Lawrence River.

Must be nice.

The state budget has to stretch to cover a plethora of needs, and the emergency shelter system is only one of them. And to handle those costs, Healey will try to drain the rest of a one-time account filled with money left over from the pandemic to cover the remaining cost this fiscal year.

This on top of a steady stretch of revenue shortfalls for the state, and a continued exodus of residents to regions with lower housing costs.

The forecast doesn’t look rosy. A top Senate budget writer warned tax collections in Massachusetts for July were expected to be “very bad,” a sign that the state’s economic woes of the past fiscal year are likely to continue into the new one.

In a letter to lawmakers, Healey said she was vetoing roughly $317 million from the $57 billion fiscal year 2025 budget that legislators sent her earlier this summer because of “some uncertainty in the economy as we start FY25.”

As Healey gets out the red pencil for the FY25 budget, will her own expenses slim down?

Unlikely.

Healey’s staff defended her travel expenditures by saying the governor had to be at conferences, or to build political or economic ties with other elected officials or business communities.

Understandable, but does Healey have to stay at posh digs while doing so? We’re not saying the governor should bunk down in a Motel 6, but surely there were less-expensive lodging options.

But when you’re one of the political elite in Massachusetts, saving money is something constituents have to do, as well as programs that are getting funding vetoed.

In this rarefied bubble, revenue is thriving and the sky’s the limit when it comes time to book a hotel. After all, it’s not on Healey’s dime — it’s on ours.

Employees of private sector companies have to answer to cost-conscious controllers. Besides saving money, trimming expenses, especially at the top, sends a powerful signal.

We’re all in this together. We want this company to succeed.

The rules are different in the public sector. Taxpayers foot the bill, and bear the cost of rising fees and taxes.

We’re not just the people who sign checks over to the Department of Revenue, we’re all stakeholders in Massachusetts.

It’s time pols remember this.

Editorial cartoon by Chip Bok (Creators Syndicate)