Across the U.S., state and local officials spend more than $90 billion every year on payments to individual companies, usually to open a new warehouse or factory in their community. To get these so-called “economic development” deals across the finish line, companies not only make promises to policymakers about benefits like job creation that often fail to materialize — they insist that policymakers negotiate with them entirely in secret. Corporations like Amazon, Facebook, and Panasonic even use legally-binding nondisclosure agreements to ensure local workers, businesses, and community members can’t weigh in until it’s too late.

In March 2022, the bipartisan Ban Secret Deals coalition launched to ban the use of NDAs and help bring transparency and accountability to economic development programs across the United States. Leaders in Florida, Illinois, Michigan, and New York introduced critical legislation to ban NDAs this year, and New York’s passed the state senate on a bipartisan vote.

Ban Secret Deals wants to keep the momentum going and connect allies across the country who are looking for information, tactics, and support to defeat secret deals in their own communities.

On Thursday, July 28 at 1 p.m. ET, join the American Economic Liberties Project, New York Senate Deputy Majority Leader Michael Gianaris and other state and community leaders for an important conversation and workshop about the harms of secret deals and why states must ban them to protect workers, consumers, local economies, and democracies.

Welcome:

Morgan Harper, American Economic Liberties Project

Keynote Remarks:

Senator Michael Gianaris, New York Senate Deputy Majority Leader

Testimonials:

Representative Collin Walke, Oklahoma

Representative Anna Eskamani, Florida

Patricia Todd, Jobs to Move America

Steve Black, farmer, Frederick County, Maryland

Workshop and Training:

Pat Garofalo, American Economic Liberties Project

Arlene Martinez, Good Jobs First

John Mozena, Center for Economic Accountability