As someone who has witnessed back-room politics for decades, this new form of political public secrecy has me more concerned than any smoke-filled room where money changed hands that occurred frequently in Louisiana’s past.

This new method of keeping the public uninformed of secret deals deserves far more attention than it is getting. The newest threat to our democracy is known as NDAs, non-disclosure agreements.

Over the past two years, Louisiana politicians have signed nearly 300 non-disclosure agreements with private companies doing business in this state. The practice has become so common that it barely generates a headline anymore. It should be generating a great deal more than that.

Let me be direct about what a non-disclosure agreement means in this context. It means that an elected official — someone whose sole purpose in public life is to represent you — has legally committed to keeping secrets from you on behalf of a corporation. Conversations happening in your name, about decisions that will affect your land, your power bill and your community, are being conducted behind a wall that your elected representative helped build.

That should concern every Louisiana citizen regardless of political affiliation. This is not a Republican or Democratic issue, it’s an American danger that threatens the very core of what this nation was founded upon.

The Meta data center project in Richland Parish generated enormous excitement, and there is a legitimate case that large economic development projects bring real benefits to rural communities that need investment. But more than 50 state officials signed non-disclosure agreements surrounding that project, preventing the public from knowing what incentives were offered and what Louisiana taxpayers and landowners gave up to make it happen. Governor Jeff Landry personally signed one himself. The community was presented with a finished deal rather than invited into the process that produced it.

One state lawmaker who helped clear the path for the project was later reported to have sold 300 acres near the site after land values exploded. These are not the hallmarks of transparent government.

Entergy’s proposed transmission line projects across Louisiana raise equally serious concerns. The company has already filed expropriation actions against landowners in South Louisiana as part of its infrastructure expansion, and proposed cross-state transmission lines have put North Louisiana landowners on notice that their property could be next. When the negotiations surrounding projects of that magnitude are shielded by non-disclosure agreements signed by the politicians who are supposed to be protecting those citizens, something has gone badly wrong with the system.

And just last week, Louisiana has a new example. SpaceX announced a $100 billion spaceport in Vermilion Parish — the largest capital investment in Louisiana history. The negotiations were conducted quietly alongside Louisiana elected officials for months before any public announcement. Perhaps most troubling, Governor Landry signed legislation earlier this year that explicitly exempts aerospace projects from public review. The biggest deal in Louisiana history, and the public was legally kept out of the room.

Supporters of these agreements argue that some confidentiality is necessary to attract major corporate investment. There is a grain of truth in that. But there is a meaningful difference between early-stage negotiating privacy and elected officials signing legal documents that bind them to corporate secrecy on matters that directly affect their constituents. There is a difference between protecting a process and hiding the terms of a finished deal from the people who will live with its consequences.

Louisiana already has some of the most business-friendly policies in the country. Companies are choosing Louisiana eagerly. That means our elected officials have leverage — leverage that is apparently being exercised behind closed doors rather than on behalf of the people who sent them to Baton Rouge.

Thomas Jefferson said that a government that does not trust its citizens with information is a government that has forgotten who it serves.

Our elected officials serve the people of Louisiana. Not Meta. Not Entergy. Not SpaceX.

It is time to start acting like it.