"The dilemma of this is, we're still in a competitive world," Hansen said. "The ink's not dry. They haven't dug a hole. And we're trying to be open, and in openness our competitors gain an edge on us. Our goal is to be open, but we're not stupid, and when we're that open we hand our competitors our bid sheet. We've said, 'Here's our bid sheet. Go out and bid against us.' . . . They now know our competitive piece in Tucson. Some guy in Tucson is going to be pretty stupid if he doesn't pick up the phone."

Still, Hansen said the state is confident it will land the new Viracon jobs because of other factors.

Board member Jerry Oldroyd said incentive programs vary from state to state and companies have "a thousand different considerations" when selecting sites. "People come to Utah for a lot of different reasons," he said. "If we have to compete just dollar for dollar, we will lose. We will lose virtually every time."

Mike Nelson, director of incentives programs and corporate recruitment for the state, said companies' requests for anonymity — including Viracon's initially — stemmed from the state's Web page about the incentives programs. For many years, he said, it included requirements to fill out a financial impact questionnaire and a form "for your protection" under the state's Government Records Access and Management Act.

But now the Web page states that information provided to the state is public unless otherwise specified. Companies still can opt for the GRAMA form if they want specific information kept confidential and Nelson cited several reasons why they might.

"That is something that we've changed, and it's something that's been legacied to us and now we realize it," Nelson said. "So I think you'll see a real difference going forward. We talked to 'Elvis' and 'Elvis' said, 'Absolutely not,' because of the reasons we talked about."

Nelson said a look at 11 states' confidentiality policies showed that seven have policies more strict than Utah's. At least three retain confidentiality until a public meeting about the incentive, he said.

As a matter of course, GOED will provide for each incentive a business summary and motion verbiage during board meetings. News media later in the day will receive a news release about the approvals.

"So there will be plenty of information coming out of this office, and the only time we'll hold it back is when the company specifically requests it out of the norm," Nelson said.

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E-mail: bwallace@desnews.com