Follow the Money with New Mexico Public Records is a practical, plain-spoken guide to using New Mexico’s public records law to track how government spends taxpayer money. Author Kenneth Stalter walks the reader through the basics of the Inspection of Public Records Act, then moves step by step into how to research a project, craft focused requests, read contracts, spot red flags in spending, and decide what to do with what you find. The book mixes clear checklists, sample request language, and explanations of deadlines with a running story about Maria, a fictional resident who learns to use records requests to question a suspicious development deal in her city. It ends with appendices that reprint the statute, explain key terms, and point to databases and FOIA resources for people who want to keep digging.

The book is surprisingly friendly and easy to move through for something rooted in law. Stalter keeps his sentences short, his word choice simple, and his structure tight, so I never felt lost in legalese or theory. I liked the way he repeats the same core ideas in different ways, such as “all records are open unless a specific exception applies” and “you do not have to justify asking for records,” because it drives home that regular people really do have power here. The Maria storyline worked for me as a teaching tool. Watching her go from an annoyed resident at a council meeting to someone who builds timelines, narrows requests, and pushes back on vague denials gave the book a human pulse and made the checklists feel less abstract. I occasionally wished the narrative had been pushed a bit further, with more emotional beats about how tiring this kind of fight can be and what it feels like to push against city hall week after week.

I really appreciate how concrete and almost tactical the book is. This is not a philosophical defense of transparency, it is a field manual. The sections on reading government contracts and spotting “red flags” in the process stand out in particular. Stalter does a good job showing how ordinary details like early payments, rushed approvals, vague scopes of work, or repeat perfect scores from the same evaluator can point to deeper problems with favoritism or poor oversight. I also liked his frank talk about the “mental game” of this work, the reminders to stay patient, stay organized, and accept that agencies will stall or push back. The brief nods to using AI tools to sift long document sets felt current and realistic rather than gimmicky. The book sometimes leans on the specific world of New Mexico procurement and state acronyms, so a reader outside that context might feel a bit boxed out, even though many of the principles would travel well.

This is a focused book for a specific audience, and within that lane, it does its job very well. I would recommend it to New Mexico residents who suspect something is off with a local project, to community organizers, to local journalists, and to anyone who sits through public meetings and feels brushed aside when they ask hard questions. It would also be a useful training tool for new staffers in advocacy groups or newsrooms who need a fast, practical orientation to records work in the state. If you want a clear, grounded, step-by-step guide that helps you actually follow the money, this book is a strong pick.

Pages: 136 | ASIN: B0GLFP24GV