Governor Jeff Landry is defending the use of non-disclosure agreements that employees in the governor’s office signed as part of the negotiations with Meta that resulted in the tech giant building a $50 billion AI data center in Richland Parish. Landry says confidentiality is critical when state government talks with private companies about mega projects.
“They don’t want what they’re doing, their plans, to leak out into the public domain before they get an opportunity to close the deal,” Landry said.
But transparency advocates and legal experts say NDAs can create a culture of fear, and it keeps the public in the dark about how deals are reached and its impact to the taxpayer. Landry pushes back on the idea that his office is trying to hide critical information.
“There’s no, like, Area 51 kind of secrecy. When we complete a deal, we announce it. When we pass legislation, it’s in the public domain,” Landry noted.
According to the Gulf States Newsroom and Type Investigations, more than 50 elected officials have signed nondisclosure agreements with Louisiana Economic Development from the time Landry took office.