Staff Reports
New public‑records digging shows something simple and rotten: local officials in Pennsylvania quietly signed nondisclosure agreements with big data‑center companies while those projects were on Governor Josh Shapiro’s fast‑track list. That discovery should make citizens angry. It should make elected leaders look in the mirror. Secret deals do not belong in towns that will pay the bills.
What the records revealed
Right‑to‑Know requests filed by reporters found that four of nine municipalities on the state’s fast‑track list produced NDAs or similar secrecy pacts tied to data‑center proposals. Officials in a fifth town stopped answering records requests. Examples include signed NDAs involving Amazon, QTS and Oracle in Salem Township, Falls Township and Shippingport. Those small towns were asked to approve projects with big impacts on land, water and power — and were told to keep quiet about the talks.
Why this matters for transparency
Governor Shapiro has already moved to take data centers off the fast‑track program and banned NDAs for agencies under his authority. That was the right step at the state level. But municipal NDAs are a separate problem. These secrecy pacts shut out residents at the very moment they need facts to weigh tradeoffs: jobs versus heavy power use, local tax breaks versus long‑term costs. Lawyers say many of these NDAs may not even be enforceable. That’s small comfort when the public is frozen out of the conversation.
What should happen next
Town supervisors should do three plain things: rescind any municipal NDAs, publish the agreements and related communications, and bring permit talks into public meetings. Governor Shapiro’s office should also make clear whether the executive order gives the state any leverage to help undo municipal secrecy. If a data‑center deal is truly good for a town, it should survive daylight. If it needs secrecy to pass, citizens deserve to ask why.
Bottom line
This reporting is a wake‑up call. Pennsylvanians should not be forced into a game of hush‑hush while developers chase tax breaks and cheap power. Transparency is not a partisan slogan — it is how free communities make smart choices. Local officials who signed these NDAs owe residents answers, and fast. If they wanted secrecy, they should at least have the courage to explain why.
