Bipartisan bill banning local officials from signing NDAs moving through Legislature

ST. PAUL, Minn. (Minnesota Reformer) — After local governments secretly approved data center projects across Minnesota, Republicans and Democrats in the Legislature have rallied behind a bill that would prohibit local government officials from signing nondisclosure agreements with the corporate giants demanding them.

Local governments have signed contracts with Big Tech companies including Meta, agreeing not to share any information about proposed data centers with the public — including the owner of the center, the expected water and power consumption, and even the existence of the NDA.

The bill (HF4077/SF4379) would require more government transparency around data centers, as well as any other project involving the use of taxpayer funds.

“It’s not as if local government officials are going out of their way to want to use these, but they’re put in a position where oftentimes they may feel that they have to use them because of local politics around proposals,” said state Sen. Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa, one of the co-authors of the bill.

It has already passed the Elections Finance and Government Operations committee in the House, and the Senate local government and judiciary committees. It will be heard in the House Judiciary Committee Thursday morning.

Companies vying for local tax breaks and other economic development incentives say they use nondisclosure agreements to protect proprietary information; in practice, they allow projects to skate through local government regulators with little to no public scrutiny.

Big Tech companies are developing data centers at a record pace around the country to keep up with the storage and computing demands of artificial intelligence, raising concerns about their intensive energy and water usage.

State lawmakers in 2025 passed a subsidy for data centers that is expected to cost the state upwards of $100 million per year in forfeited tax revenue. The same year, the Legislature also passed a law requiring data centers to pay for the full cost of their energy usage, including any equipment upgrades required to service them, with the intent of keeping utility rates down for the average customer.