SC

Palmetto State: Still Failing On Incentives

ANOTHER REPORT SHOWS S.C. HIDING ITS “ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT” BRIBES Two years ago this website published a report on South Carolina’s near-total lack of transparency in assessing the effectiveness of its taxpayer-funded “economic development” bribes. That article – based on data from the Pew Center for the States – concluded South…

ANOTHER REPORT SHOWS S.C. HIDING ITS “ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT” BRIBES

Two years ago this website published a report on South Carolina’s near-total lack of transparency in assessing the effectiveness of its taxpayer-funded “economic development” bribes.

That article – based on data from the Pew Center for the States – concluded South Carolina was one of twenty-six states “not meeting any of the criteria for scope or quality of evaluation” of its government-awarded incentives.

Has anything changed since then?

Of course not …

According to reporter Jeff Wilkinson of The (Columbia, S.C.) State newspaper, another national group has given the Palmetto State an abysmal ranking for failing to disclose the “subsidies and credits it gives to companies that locate or expand here.”

“You have the bare minimum of disclosure,” Philip Mattera – director of the group Good Jobs First – told Wilkinson. “South Carolina gets the lowest possible score that’s not zero.”

Great …

Mattera went on to note that North Carolina does an excellent job of disclosing its government-subsidized incentives.

“If North Carolina can do it, why not South Carolina?” he asked.

Hmmmmm … maybe because North Carolina (unlike our ass backward state) knows when the juice isn’t worth the squeeze.

Disclosed or not, government-subsidized “economic development” (a.k.a. picking winners and losers in the marketplace) is a terrible public policy … one that has demonstrably failed our state. Unfortunately, S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley has made bribing big companies with massive taxpayer handouts her top priority … while showing next-to-no love to the people who pay for those handouts.

How has that strategy worked out? Not so well.

No wonder our “leaders” want to keep this scam under wraps!

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12 comments

Subsidizing big business, yay! January 30, 2014 at 10:59 am

“South Carolina gets the lowest possible score that’s not zero.”

Haley and Bobby Hitt of the SCDOC get zero points:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hfYJsQAhl0

Reply
GrandTango January 30, 2014 at 11:23 am

The State newspaper and Pew are your judges???…

FITS: if you want to offer anything fresh or intelligent …you cannot go nipping at the heels of the decrepit and stale dinosaurs…Who do you think got us in this mess as a country????

The State is shrinking, yet doubles-down on its Leftwing dogma…and FITS and Sanford still beg to be smiled upon by them…Go figure…

Reply
Smirks January 30, 2014 at 12:25 pm

GrandTango giving advice on offering something fresh and intelligent? Oh man…

Reply
Rosebud January 30, 2014 at 12:49 pm

Lol…he must have ran his sled into a tree yesterday.

Reply
shifty henry January 30, 2014 at 2:27 pm

You should hear him talk about his vegetables at his roadside stand…..

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Irony,thou name is Grand Mango January 30, 2014 at 2:37 pm

Big T website forthcoming you doubter.

Reply
euwe max January 30, 2014 at 12:00 pm

I applied for a dehydrated water rehydration grant. [fingers crossed]

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tomstickler January 30, 2014 at 2:58 pm

I don’t suppose anyone noticed that Amazon will start collecting sales tax on on-line purchases by North Carolina residents after February 1st. The revenue has been estimated at $20 million to $30 million annually for the state, and $10 million to $13 million for cities and counties.

Anyone remember all the complaining how hard it would be to do that in South Carolina? Amazon threatened to not build their distribution center unless Haley caved.

BTW, did you get your little email from Amazon listing how much you had bought from them in 2013? Be sure to calculate your USE TAX on that — and anything else you bought on-line “tax free” from other sites — on Line 26 of your South Carolina Form 1040.

Reply
GrandTango January 30, 2014 at 3:23 pm

Looky, looky…we got a real leftwing, gov’t loving tax cheat…

You don’t mind Obama taking from other people to fund the lethargic, but when it’s time for you to pitch in your ‘FAIR SHARE’…you shrink up around the testicles…

Typical Liberal…you like the system as long as it robs the other guy blind, so you can sit on your lazy @$$, and hit bong…but just as soon as you get asked to contribute, you start hemmin’ and hawwin’…lookin’ at the ground…

I bet Obama is LHAO at you, while he slips the champs, and snorts another line….Hahahahha…

Reply
NSA January 30, 2014 at 3:34 pm

I think George left a kilo somewhere in the Oval Office.

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tomstickler January 30, 2014 at 11:35 pm

Yet another reading comprehension fail by Grand Tango.

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GrandTango January 31, 2014 at 7:19 am

Amazon has brought 2,700 jobs to SC in a HORRIBLE Obma-conomy. So STFU you piece of $#!*….Haley may have had to have been forced, but she did the right thing…

You and Obama ain’t nothing but a F*#k up, going on 6 years. And people are suffering for it…you ignorant Dumb@$$….It;s like old Union times (when they were actually useful)…you need your @$$ kicked, because your lord-god has made jobs, and opportunity… so precious…

For you to b!*ch about any part of it, is absurd…

Reply

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