A Million-Dollar Idea [PHIL-OSOPHY]

I have an idea that's worth a million dollars.

While the Massachusetts Legislature was busy banning plastic bags and flavored tobacco products, they didn't have a window of opportunity to finalize their budget work left over from Fiscal Year 2019. Mind you, they had time to ban this and that, but they didn't have the occasion to come up with a supplemental budget bill, meaning the state still hasn't closed the books on the last fiscal year ending June 30 and now stands to forfeit more than $1 million in interest that the state could have earned.

So the legislature's failure to agree on a bill closing the books is preventing the comptroller from filing an annual report, which was statutorily due by October 31. And it's going to cost us taxpayers about $30,000 a day in foregone interest.

But we got the Newports banned, along with those pesky plastic bags.

I hear that there's movement but no resolution yet. In late October, the comptroller told the legislature if he was able to file his report by November 15, the state will have lost more than $500,000 in interest and would lose out on at least $30,000 more each day after the 15th until he is able to file the report and make the transfer.

That's a lot of money to me, but Beacon Hill will scoff at that notion. And that's why so many everyday, hard-working taxpayers are turned off to politics.

Can they just give us good government and forget the malarkey?

Phil Paleologos is the host of The Phil Paleologos Show on 1420 WBSM New Bedford. He can be heard weekdays from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. Contact him at phil@wbsm.com and follow him on Twitter @PhilPaleologos. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.