Michael LaFaive is senior director of the Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.
Do elected officials represent taxpayers or corporations? This question shouldn’t have to be asked, but the rise of nondisclosure agreements in negotiations over tax incentives and subsidies makes it necessary.
In my home state of Michigan and nationwide, politicians are promising to hide details about tax breaks or outright grants they plan on doling out to businesses until such deals are all but impossible to stop. Taxpayers have a right to know that information — and politicians have a democratic duty to disclose it.
