economic development records Archives - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

30 Oct, 2024

TVA fights public records lawsuit over its grants to cryptocurrency mines
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TVA fights public records lawsuit over its grants to cryptocurrency mines

Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

TVA fights public records lawsuit over its grants to cryptocurrency mines

By Deborah Fisher|2024-10-30T12:25:51-05:00October 30, 2024|Categories: Tennessee Coalition for Open Government|Tags: economic development records, Knoxville News Sentinel, Paul McAdoo, public records lawsuit, TVA|0 Comments

The Tennessee Valley Authority has refused to release documents about its grants to cryptocurrency companies, including one in Knoxville, and is now fighting a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit from a journalist and UT professor over it. TVA claims that releasing how much it gave the company in economic incentives would reveal its own trade secrets and violate the privacy rights of the employees in the companies that received the grants.

14 Jun, 2024

Nashville journalist Adam Sichko reveals state’s secret Amazon incentive — 5 years later
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Nashville journalist Adam Sichko reveals state’s secret Amazon incentive — 5 years later

economic development

Nashville journalist Adam Sichko reveals state’s secret Amazon incentive — 5 years later

By Deborah Fisher|2024-06-14T08:23:17-05:00June 14, 2024|Categories: economic development|Tags: Adam Sichko, Amazon, Bob Rolfe, ECD, economic development records, Nashville Business Journal|0 Comments

You've got to hand it to Adam Sichko, a senior reporter with the Nashville Business Journal. Five years ago, Amazon was shopping the country for a new headquarters location that promised 50,000 jobs and a $5 billion corporate investment. Which state and city would give them the most incentives (money)? But the state invoked a law that allowed it to keep what it thought was "sensitive" information confidential for five years. Well, that five years were up this year, and Sichko got the records.

5 May, 2022

Citizen discovery is most important issue in vetting proposed developments
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Citizen discovery is most important issue in vetting proposed developments

economic development, Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

Citizen discovery is most important issue in vetting proposed developments

By Deborah Fisher|2022-05-05T14:08:54-05:00May 5, 2022|Categories: economic development, Tennessee Coalition for Open Government|Tags: economic development records|0 Comments

It’s hard for citizens to get the information they need about proposed developments in a manner timely enough to make a difference to protect their own property value and interests.

4 Jan, 2022

$200M TNInvestco serves as a cautionary tale, including for lack of transparency

By Deborah Fisher|2022-01-04T10:58:50-06:00January 4, 2022|Categories: economic development|Tags: economic development records, proprietary records, TNIvestco|0 Comments

Transparency dogged the TNInvestco program from the beginning, including with a lawsuit demanding to know how the recipients were chosen. Lawmakers also, when creating the program, enacted statutes to keep confidential the specific results of the state's investments.

16 Nov, 2021

Despite pushes for more accountability, economic development remains opaque in Tennessee

By Deborah Fisher|2021-11-16T13:14:06-06:00November 16, 2021|Categories: economic development|Tags: ECD, economic development records, Megasite Authority of West Tennessee, Open Records Act exemptions, proprietary records, tax credits, trade secrets|1 Comment

Taxpayers don't know what they are getting for their money despite some lawmakers pushing for more accountability and information. Why? A web of exceptions to Tennessee's Public Records laws and lack of meaningful reporting on outcomes prevent transparency in the state's economic development programs.