The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "budget" ...
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Cars for Congress
At the height of the debt ceiling debate, the investigative team at WTTG pulled video from floor debates, news conferences and other sources to show how the very people demanding the nation make sacrifices by cutting the budget were the ones taking advantage of a Congressional loophole--allowing Congress to use government money to buy luxury cars.
Tags: congress; loopholes; debt ceiling debate; breaking news; broadcast
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Streets of Death
The investigation shows how a lax legal system and budget issues have kept the South Korean government from effectively maintaining its Traffic Safety Law.
Tags: traffic accidents; car accidents; traffic
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Commonwealth Games Medical Scam
The story examines the massive overshoots in the budget for the Commonwealth games. The investigation focused on the purchase of highly inflated medical equipment made by the state government for players and spectators of the games.
Tags: Commonwealth Games; Delhi; sports; Commonwealth
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Tracking Your Tax Dollars
The five-part investigation found Florida state agencies were spending hundreds of thousands of tax dollars on bonuses, retirement gifts, flowers, gift cards and more. At the same time they laid off state employees and cut services to balance the budget.
Tags: federal stimulus; American Recovery and Reinvestment Act; Stimulus Bill
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How Student Fees Quietly Boost College Sports
The investigation found that many college and universities had not been disclosing how much of the student fees was going toward the athletic budgets. In some cases, student fees for athletics can account for as much as 23% of the total mandatory tuition and fees charge.
Tags: university athletics; college sports; Division I; state schools; tuition
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"Political misuse of a public database, a collection of stories by Harford Courant staff writer Jon Lender"
Connecticut Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz exploited an extensive yet recondite database of "36,000 Connecticut citizens" by submitting a FOI request within her office. By using her own staff and a "taxpayer-funded budget," she tracked and documented citizen's "political and personal information" and created the database to boost her aspiration of reaching higher office.
Tags: Susan Bysiewicz; FOI; Richard Blumenthal; campaign; taxpayers; Democrat; state attorney general; governor
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Trip to Nowhere
On the eve of a vote to raise taxes nearly 10 percent and cut spending, the stories laid out in detail how auto allowances routinely granted to dozens of county officials were not justified by their documented needs. Commissioners, department heads, and 15 of their secretaries and staff were receiving what amounted to bonuses that often exceeded more than 10 times what they could document in obscure but required forms. In a followup story, the county administrator reversed course and said he would study discontinuing auto allowances that exceeded the documented needs for two recently hired county watchdogs who were supposed to guard against waste and abuse. Finally, in a third story, the county acknowledged it had failed to meet states and local requirements to document "typical" mileage before all employees began receiving allowances, and said it would change its policy.
Tags: Tax; budget cut; finance; documents; fraud; corruption; auto allowances; bonuses; county
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Gambling on Growth
For years, St. Cloud-area cities have used public financing to pay upfront for improving roads and extending water and sewer utilities to new housing developments. Developers were supposed to pay off the debt through assessments, but many are falling behind on payments, leaving cities to bear the cost.
Tags: Developers; Finance; City Budget; Utilities; Housing; Roads; Funding; Loans; Debt
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Missing Oversight
These six stories cover financial problems surrounding one of of Glendale's most notable nonprofit organizations, New Horizons. The series started as an article on the long-delayed construction of a planned $4-million childcare center, but quickly grew into a much larger investigation of financial misrepresentations made by the nonprofit's founder and lax city oversight of federal funding. In addition to finding significant budget problems at the nonprofit, the stories revealed that city officials had repeatedly doled out limited federal funds at a time the nonprofit's own records showed they had little funding for the project.
Tags: nonprofit; NGO; federal funding; budget; New Horizons; Glendale; corruption; misrepresentation; finance; construction; childcare center
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Florida's Taj Mahal
Despite a recession heavily impacting Florida's budget, some judges managed to slip $33.5 million into an unrelated bill to build an extravagant new courthouse known to many as Florida's "Taj Mahal."
Tags: judges; recession; courthouse; Taj Mahal; Marco Rubio