The Business of Government - John Cheves (Kentucky)
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The Business of Government: Uncovering Good Stories in Local Government Budgets, Taxes and Contracts John Cheves Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader [email protected]
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John Cheves, reporter at the Lexington Herald-Leader presents “The Business of Government” during the free Reynolds Center workshop, “Uncovering the Best Local Business Stories,” in Lexington, Ky. The daylong workshop covered tips on how to find good stories in the business of government, how to cover economic-development agencies at the state and local levels, and how to find public information on private companies. Presenters also discussed how to find stories in small business and publicly available databases, and how to localize national and international stories for your audience. This free training was specifically geared toward community journalists and generalists on tight budgets and small staffs. Another workshop by the same name was later held in Fort Worth. For more information about free training for business journalists, please visit businessjournalism.org.
Transcript of The Business of Government - John Cheves (Kentucky)
The Business of Government: Uncovering Good Stories in Local Government Budgets, Taxes and
Contracts
John Cheves Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader [email protected]
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.
The Business of Government
Compared to what? The need for context
Budgets
Up or down, winners and losers
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!)
Budgets
“Wait. What’s that?” Ask about everything.
Photo by Flickr user Victor1558
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.
Taxes Who pays, who doesn’t, and how?
Photo by flickr user Victor1558
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 recession treatin’ ya? Are tax breaks justifiable?
Special taxing districts or entities
Taxes
Helpful hint: “The rule of PUNG”
Probably, usually, normally, generally
(Thanks to R. Thomas Herman, former tax columnist,
The Wall Street Journal)
Contracts
Who are we paying to do what?
Photo by flickr user Erik ERXON
Contracts Who approves contracts? How and when?
Where should you be checking? Competitive bidding – really?
Cost overruns: “Oh, one more thing …”
Photo by flickr user Victor1558
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?
Photo by flickr user Victor1558
Contracts
“How would this look on the front page
of the newspaper?”
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.
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.
