The high-stakes contest for Amazon’s second headquarters has led some public officials to question whether they will sign nondisclosure agreements so readily in the future.
As The Wall Street Journal reports, companies seeking tax breaks and other incentives often require local officials to sign NDAs as part of economic development deals to protect confidential information. The secrecy is intended to avoid alerting employees, competitors and would-be land speculators of potential development.
Amazon decided this month to split the new headquarters between New York City and northern Virginia, ending a process that started in 2017.
Amazon required many of the 238 bidders to sign one-page NDAs that barred local officials from revealing “all nonpublic information relating to Amazon or disclosed by Amazon … that is designated as confidential or that … reasonably should be considered as confidential,” according to three such agreements reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Some officials and citizen advocates say NDAs give private companies too much sway over public policy while keeping taxpayers in the dark. Democratic New York state Sen. Michael Gianaris, among other lawmakers, said he is introducing new legislation that would ban governments from signing nondisclosure agreements with private corporations engaged in economic-development negotiations.
