WASHINGTON, DC – In an op-ed for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Georgia Democratic nominee for attorney general Tanya Miller said she would enforce the state’s open-government laws to increase transparency and accountability, including when it comes to the expansion of data centers, which have been largely hidden from public scrutiny.

“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,” Miller wrote. “I will enforce them with the same dedication that made me an undefeated homicide prosecutor.”

Key highlights: 

• “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.”
• “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.”
• “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 […] Accountability has to run both ways.”
• “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.”

• “I will push for transparency before the deal is done […] 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.”
• “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.
• “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.”

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