ALABAMA REFLECTOR
Following years of pressure by good government advocates, the Alabama Legislature just passed a bill to create better transparency around the state’s use of economic development incentives.
This a major victory for those concerned about government transparency and accountability.
The recently enacted Transparency in Incentives Act requires the state Department of Commerce to disclose online names of companies that receive economic development incentives. Up to this point, none of Alabama’s state subsidy programs were transparent, despite costing taxpayers billions of dollars.
“Job creation” is the main justification for giving companies packages worth upwards of hundreds of millions of dollars, but the public has had no way of knowing how many jobs were ultimately created, much less what they pay workers. In fact, the public can’t even access basic information, like which companies have received subsidies or how much was received. In 2022, Alabama’s disclosure was so poor, the state tied with Georgia for last place in a national transparency survey (co-authored by Tarczynska) of state-level economic development programs. Its score: 0/100.
The new legislation requires the Commerce Department to disclose annually:
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