Georgia’s biggest deals on data centers should not be made in the dark

Editor’s note: The AJC invited both Georgia attorney general candidates for the Nov. 3 election, Democratic Rep. Tanya Miller and Republican Sen. Brian Strickland, to write guest opinion columns about their vision for enforcing open-government laws and other issues related to the office.

In Effingham County this summer, a public development authority signed a $20 billion deal with OpenAI for a 1,400-acre site near Rincon.

There were no public hearings. The authority’s own chief executive was bound by a nondisclosure agreement with the company until a week before the vote.

Notice of that meeting went up on the authority’s building, but not on its website. Reporters needed 12 open records requests to piece together what happened. Some still have not been answered.

Your government does not do you a favor when it hands over a public record or allows you access to a meeting where decisions are being made that affect you. The record was made on your behalf, paid for with your money, kept in your name. It was always yours.

Georgians deserve a say in government decisions

Georgia state Rep. Tanya Miller, D-Atlanta, is the 2026 Democratic nominee for Georgia attorney general. (Courtesy)

Georgia’s Open Records Act says open government is essential to a free society.

But the people who ask — a reporter, a neighbor, someone who wants to know what’s coming to her community — too often get delayed responses, a fee estimate they can’t afford, a redacted page or no answer at all.

Most cannot afford to sue their own government to get the public records they are entitled to.

Last December, state regulators certified nearly 10,000 megawatts of new power generation for Georgia. About 80% of it is expected to serve data centers.

These projects raise hard questions about your land, your water, your power bill and who pays for the infrastructure — yet they are negotiated privately and announced as a done deal, rushing an ill-equipped local government into a decision worth billions.

Georgia’s Open Records Act says open government is essential to a free society.

But the people who ask — a reporter, a neighbor, someone who wants to know what’s coming to her community — too often get delayed responses, a fee estimate they can’t afford, a redacted page or no answer at all.

Most cannot afford to sue their own government to get the public records they are entitled to.

Last December, state regulators certified nearly 10,000 megawatts of new power generation for Georgia. About 80% of it is expected to serve data centers.

These projects raise hard questions about your land, your water, your power bill and who pays for the infrastructure — yet they are negotiated privately and announced as a done deal, rushing an ill-equipped local government into a decision worth billions.

Nondisclosure agreements keep the few people who know — some of whom stand to profit — from telling their neighbors.

By the time you learn the details, it is too late to have any real say.

Accountability, transparency and fairness are key

Georgia’s attorney general is empowered to enforce our sunshine laws at the state and local levels. I will use that power — and my experience as the only prosecutor in this race — to hold officials accountable to the letter of those laws.

I will enforce them with the same dedication that made me an undefeated homicide prosecutor.

Here is what I will do.

• First, I will strengthen the office’s open-government complaint and mediation process, prioritizing urgent cases involving imminent public meetings, pending votes or records at risk of destruction. Every complaint will get a response within 10 business days, and I will publish my office’s own response times. Accountability has to run both ways.
• Second, public business does not become private because it moves to a text thread, an encrypted app or a contractor’s server. I will issue clear guidance to agencies, local governments and development authorities on the disclosure duties they already have, and I will act when records are improperly withheld, no matter which party the officials belong to. Privacy, security and law enforcement interests deserve protection, but exemptions must be read narrowly, not used as a blanket excuse for secrecy. A nondisclosure agreement with a private company cannot erase your rights under state law.
• Third, I will push for transparency before the deal is done. Georgia law lets economic development records stay secret until a binding commitment is secured. Genuinely sensitive negotiations deserve protection, but secrecy must not foreclose public participation. I will write legislation requiring disclosure before final votes on data center deals: the tax breaks going to developers, the projected jobs and revenue, the anticipated electricity and water use, the infrastructure required and who will pay for it. I will fight any attempt — by the Trump administration or by our own state and local governments — to cut Georgians out of these decisions or pass the costs on to hardworking Georgians.
• Finally, the General Assembly writes Georgia’s open government rules and exempts itself from them. Our courts have confirmed it: the legislature and its offices are not subject to the Open Records Act. I will write legislation extending the act to the House, the Senate, their committees and their offices — asking my own chamber, where I lead my caucus, to give up cover it has held for decades. Lawmakers who spend your money should not be the only Georgians exempt from the sunshine.

Georgia law gives the attorney general power to enforce these laws through civil action and to prosecute officials who intentionally violate them.

I will use both.