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 "county government spending" ...
-
Digging Up Millions for Tiny Airstrip
“The federal government intends to spend $11 million to build an airstrip in a rural area”. In the rural area, the demand for an airstrip is slim to none and pressures a local airport to shut down, which is barely used and supported by tax money. So building a new airstrip is unneeded and a waste of tax money. Additionally, this article is an example of “a runaway federal program fueled by fees and surcharge paid by airline passengers”.
Tags: transportation; air travel; taxpayers; aviation; tax dollars; Oswego County; Hastings New York; finances
-
County Hall: The Perks of Public Office
The series looks at local politicians and their spending habits. These habits were rather lavish for a local government which had to cut spending on certain programs. The stories focus on “everything from how commissioners were using aides as personal chauffeurs to the global travel the commissioners took with no benefit to taxpayers”. Further, advisors of the mayor were receiving “double digit” pay raises, while the budget was crumbling.
Tags: politics; public; officials; Miami-Dade County Hall; corruption; taxes; budget hearings; salary
-
Department thrifty despite salary growth
"The impetus for the project was Florida's budget crisis. Governments are cutting services like libraries and street sweeping to help balance the state's budget. But between 2001 and 2006, governments were overloaded with money, and we wanted to see what they spent it on. Sheriff's Offices seemed like a logical case study. Some offices were judicious in their spending; others, such as the Manatee County Sheriff's Office, bought souped-up SUVs for high ranking officers."
Tags: police; government spending; budget; salary; perks; sheriff; Florida
-
Playing the ponies
This WATE investigation revealed how the mayor and a tax enforcement officer for Campbell County spend time gambling out of state during the work week while on county time. The report also uncovered how the tax officer held down two outside jobs while he was supposed to be enforcing the wheel tax, a neglect of his county job duties that cost the county about $250,000 in lost education revenue. Cell phone records helped to show where and when the men were spending their time while they were supposed to be working.
Tags: TAPE; TRANSCRIPT; county government; cell phone records; moonlighting; gambling
-
Homeland security spending leaps to $110 million a year in Pennsylvania
This story shows how homeland security spending in Pennsylvania increased 100-fold over four years, transferring disaster preparedness from an afterthought of county government to big-budget, high-tech operations.
Tags: Homeland security spending; county government; disaster preparedness; emergency management
-
Moving out of Reach
This investigative report follows the results of the 1986 Census Bureau survey conducted about housing conditions in Orange County. Using CAR, Campbell's analysis revealed that "nearly a quarter million residents of Orange County--one family in nine--spend at least half their income on housing," which significantly exceeds the federal governent-recommended limit. This investigation also looked at te increase in tax-exempt bonds for luxury apartmet, despite a shortage of low-cost rental properties in the county.
-
Pima County Contracts
An investigation by the Arizona Daily Star revealed that "Pima County, Arizona, wastes much of the money it spends on roads and sewers by avoiding competitive bidding, disregarding its own contractor rating system and failing to track its spending. Because of these problems, county taxpayers forked over twice the money they approved in a bond referendum -- or $700 million -- to do the work promised. Patronage flourishes within a system so lacking in accountability: Contributions to a supervisor's election bid are a better indication of who gets county work than a contractor's scores in a quality ranking."
Tags: Arizona; Pima County; roads; sewers; county government; contractor rating system
-
Spending scandal in county mayor's office
The Commercial Appeal investigated the suspensions of Tom Jones, senior advisor to County Mayor Jim Rout and Rout's two predecessors. Findings revealed that Jones owed upwards of $35,000 for unauthorized, personal charges on his county-issued credit card--and the mayor had also used his county-issued credit card for personal items.
Tags: Memphis; County Mayor; Jim Rout; Tennessee; Tom Jones; personal charges; public spending; credit cards; unauthorized purchases; county government
-
Anatomy of a deal: airport buys out academy
"In a deal largely bankrolled by taxpayers and aided by an unusually generous property appraisal, county officials have agreed to buy a private school and allow it to move from an airport flight path to a county-owned site for a public park," The Palm Beach Post reports. The story is about the purchase of King's Academy campus by Palm Beach International Airport for $14.5 million. It was not a coincidence that the airport's director children attended the school. Federal Aviation Administration officials admitted they had not checked the overpriced deal.
Tags: aviation; land purchases; property; FAA; county government spending
-
Build Indiana
The Star reports on misappropriations of money from the Build Indiana Fund, created from gambling proceeds and with the primary objective to pay for capital projects in local communities. The ongoing coverage reveals that Build Indiana has turned into a slush fund that paid for politicians' pet projects. The analysis of a database of cancelled checks and a list of projects has shown that at least $40 million had been spent on projects that were not authorized by the law, personally benefited lawmakers, or did not even exist on paper. The investigation caused the Marion County Prosecutor's Office, the FBI and the State Board of Accounts to launch their own investigation into the spending from the fund.
Tags: state government; budget; construction; legislature; CAR