Washington, D.C. — The Oklahoma state legislature is advancing a massive incentive package at the request of Gov. Kevin Stitt, which would provide tax breaks to an as-of-yet unnamed corporation. Stitt admitted publicly to signing a non-disclosure agreement which prevents him from divulging the corporation’s identity or how many jobs it has said it will create for Oklahoma workers.

The recently launched Ban Secret Deals coalition aims to put an end to the use of non-disclosure agreements in economic development deals like that used in Oklahoma.

“This proposed corporate subsidy in Oklahoma is a perfect example of why we need to ban secret deals,” said Pat Garofalo, Director of State & Local Policy at the American Economic Liberties Project. “Oklahoma communities are being intentionally cut out of the process of deciding how their public resources are used. Local businesses could be harmed by the state subsidizing their dominant competitors, but can’t voice any opposition.”

“Worst of all, it’s possible the same corporation is using NDAs to play Oklahoma and Kansas — which approved $1.2 billion for an unnamed corporation in February — off against each other in a race to the bottom,” added Garofalo. “It’s time to ban this corrupt practice once and for all.”

Ban Secret Deals is a coalition of national and state-based policy and advocacy groups from across the political spectrum advocating for state-level bans against the use of non-disclosure agreements in economic development deals. A database of previous NDA-covered economic development deals can be found here.

Learn more about Ban Secret Deals here.

Learn more about Economic Liberties here.

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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.