State goes to court again to keep H2Q bid a secret

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Pennsylvania has gone to court again to keep secret the incentives it is offering Amazon to locate its second headquarters in Pittsburgh or Philadelphia.

The Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development has filed an appeal in Commonwealth Court challenging the June 13 ruling by the state’s independent Office of Open Records that ordered the release of the incentive package to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

That ruling came on an appeal filed by the Post-Gazette after DCED denied the newspaper’s Right-to-Know request for the information.

In its petition to the state’s Commonwealth Court, DCED maintained that disclosing the incentives would “cause severe prejudice and irreparable economic harm” to the department, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.

The appeal, filed July 11, challenges the open records office ruling that the incentives being offered to Seattle-based Amazon — believed to be at least $1 billion — are neither confidential proprietary information nor trade secrets exempt from disclosure under the Right-to-Know law.

Part of the incentive package, according to the Department of Community and Economic Development, includes a new economic development program designed specifically for HQ2, as the second headquarters is being