What Boston taxpayer wouldn’t like a 60% pay raise? Unless you work for a quasi-public agency like the Boston Water and Sewer Commission, that’s probably not going to happen.

But you will get to pay for it.

BWSC HR Director Marie Theodat has seen her pay spike by 61% since 2019, courtesy of taxpayers, as the Herald reported. City records show she was also promoted.

Theodat’s salary, listed as $126,000 in April 2019, jumped to $202,873 this year, through a series of  raises over that 4-year period, according to payroll data obtained by the Herald through a public records request.

She makes a little less than Mayor Michelle Wu, who clocks in at $207,000. But Wu runs a whole city, while Theodat is an HR executive for a single agency. She’s the highest paid HR exec in the City of Boston, according to Herald and city payroll records.

Where’s Sen. Elizabeth Warren, blaster of high corporate executive salaries, at a time like this?

Resisting Donald Trump, no doubt. But she is not the only lawmaker who’s willing to let sleeping quasi-public agencies lie.

Last year, the state Senate rejected a plan by Republican Minority Leader Sen. Bruce Tarr that would have required quasi-public agencies to make their payroll data available.

His amendment to the upper chamber’s fiscal 2024 spending plan aimed to increase transparency by requiring every one of the state’s at least 42 public adjacent agencies to post their payroll on the state Comptroller’s website.

“This is a matter of fundamental accountability,” Tarr said.

“We speak frequently in this chamber, and rightly so, about the need for increased transparency and one of the areas where transparency is particularly important is around government spending,” Tarr added.

Transparency is a popular buzzword in political circles, but calls to implement it too often fall on deaf ears in Massachusetts.

“This is a matter of consistency, it is a matter of fairness, it is a matter of eliminating an area of secrecy in one field of discussion where we have, in so many cases, eliminated that secrecy, and it’s only fair that we do so here again,” Tarr said. “I hope the amendment is adopted.”

His amendment was defeated by voice vote seconds after he pleaded his case.

Still, Tarr gets major points for trying.

The Gloucester lawmaker dared to say the quiet part out loud: “The quasi-public entities have, in many cases, very highly compensated individuals and many of them still do not share that information with the comptroller’s office.”

Highly compensated individuals like Theodat, racking up $200K+ as HR executive. How many other Theodats are out there, making bank away from the prying eyes of taxpayers? Why is it voting down a bid for transparency such a slam-dunk on Beacon Hill?

Cynics would say that’s just Massachusetts politics. But it shouldn’t be, and taxpayers shouldn’t have to put up with it.

We don’t have Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy ready to tackle such state-level expenditures through their Department of Government Efficiency. But we do have pols like Bruce Tarr.

Mayor Wu’s plan to hike commercial tax rates in Boston just passed the House and is on to the Senate. A tax hike still looms for homeowners, however Wu’s bill would temper it if passed. The city and state have money going out and not enough coming in. It’s imperative we know exactly how our tax dollars are being spent.

Sen. Tarr, we implore you to bring the transparency fight once more to Beacon Hill.

Editorial cartoon by Gary Varvel (Creators Syndicate)