John Cheves, investigative reporter at the Lexington Herald-Leader, presents during the Reynolds Center's free workshop, "Investigating the Business of Government," in Lexington, Ky. For more information on business coverage training for journalists, please visit http://businessjournalism.org.

1. The Business of Government:
Uncovering Good Stories in Local
Government Budgets, Taxes and
Contracts
John Cheves
Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader
jcheves@herald-leader.com

2. The Business of Government
Follow the money
What I learned in Liberty County:
Get the records, data and numbers, and
then ask your questions.
Try to understand the budgets as well as
your sources do. Poke, prod, ask.
Don’t apologize: It’s our money.

3. The Business of Government
Compared to what?
The need for context

4. Budgets
Up or down,
winners and
losers
Photo by jjMustang_79

6. Budgets
How do the biggest departments spend it?
• Salaries, pensions and benefits
What do outside agencies get?
• Deficit spending, debt and debt service
• State and federal money
• Pools for discretionary spending
• One-time spending – land, projects
(And read the footnotes!)

7. Budgets
“Wait. What’s that?”
Ask about everything.
Photo: Office of Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick

9. Budgets
The Los Angeles Times and
the city budget of Bell, California:
a $1.5 million/year city manager.
Two years of reporting, eight criminally
charged public officials, millions of dollars
in tax refunds and one Pulitzer Prize.

11. Taxes
Who pays, who doesn’t, and how?
Photo by flickr user Victor1558

12. Taxes
What is taxed and at what rate?
What doesn’t get taxed? Why?
What revenue is growing? Shrinking?
Who is delinquent?
How’s the downturn treatin’ ya?
Are tax breaks justifiable?
Special taxing districts or entities

13. Taxes
Helpful hint: “The rule of PUNG”
Probably, usually, normally, generally
(Thanks to R. Thomas Herman,
former tax columnist,
The Wall Street Journal)

14. Contracts
Who are we paying to do what?
Photo by flickr user Erik ERXON

15. Contracts
Who approves contracts? How and when?
Where should you be checking?
Competitive bidding – really?
Cost overruns: “Oh, one more thing …”
Commonwealth Emergency operations Center in Frankfort, Ky. Photo: Kentucky National Guard Public Affairs Office

16. Contracts
Who are these contractors?
(Family, friends, campaign
donors, past or present public
officials?)
Do we really need this?
At that price?
Spending more on contracts?
Less?
Wolf Creek Dam near Russell Springs, Ky.
Photo: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

17. Contracts
“How would this look
on the front page
of the newspaper?”

18. The Business of Government
The Open Records Act (or Public Records
Act, Sunshine Law, etc.) is your friend.
Submit requests regularly. Don’t settle for
what public officials voluntarily give you.
You don’t know what you didn’t know
until you know it.
In most states, the twin of ORA is the Open
Meetings Act, which requires governments
to conduct nearly all business in public.

19. The Business of Government
Anyone can file an Open Records Act
request asking a public entity for existing
documents, including budgets, invoices,
contracts, credit card statements, email,
correspondence and payroll records.
In Kentucky, you can appeal a denial of the
Open Records Act to the Office of Attorney
General in Frankfort – at no cost. Go to
http://ag.ky.gov/civil/orom for more info.