After the headlines, after the press releases and fanfare, where do all these investments go? Some of them go south and take millions of tax dollars with them.
- In 1994 lawmakers invested $17 million in Air South. Three years later the company went bankrupt and 700 South Carolina workers were laid off.
- In 1997 Marine Energy Systems was promised enormous taxpayer-funded incentives. The company announced the creation of 700 jobs. Less than three years later, the company was bankrupt.
- In 1998 Western Star Trucks was offered a massive investment package that included a reduced fee in lieu of property taxes and $25 million in exchange for 400 jobs in North Charleston. Two years later the plant closed.
- For two decades politicians gave millions – in cash – to Policy Management Systems Corp. In 2000 the company laid off 700 workers, was bought out, and the new company laid off 550 more.
- South Carolina taxpayers have spent more than $100 million on a new “research park” called “Innovista.” Politicians promised it would attract millions of private sector investment dollars. Today, the buildings are unfinished and largely empty.
- More than $40 million in state and local tax dollars have been spent in the Midlands alone to develop the “hydrogen economy.” Two hydrogen fueling stations cost $1.45 million. There are only two hydrogen-powered cars in the state, one of which costs more than $100,000.
- Inspiration Network moved to Lancaster County after receiving up to $26 million in incentives from South Carolina. By 2009 the company was laying off workers, freezing wages, and stopping 401(k) contributions.
- A $40 million deal brought electric bus-manufacturer Proterra to Greenville County. The company announced that it would create 1,300 jobs. That number was recently reduced to 400.
- In July of 2010, South Korea-based electric car manufacturer CT&T announced with great fanfare that it would build a $21 million assembly plant in Duncan and bring in 370 jobs. Almost two years later, neither plant nor jobs have come to Duncan.
- Amy’s Kitchen, which announced in May of 2011 that it would build a $63 million manufacturing plant and bring 700 jobs to Greenville County, has postponed its plans indefinitely.
- In 2011 the Senate voted to give the Institute for Business and Home Safety – an organization that was already operating in South Carolina – roughly $1 million in retroactive tax breaks.
[…] state. Indeed, South Carolina’s history of deal-making with taxpayer-funded incentives includes a long list of utter failures – companies that took incentives and either went bankrupt or left the state long before producing […]