The Pile of Money
Subtitle: The budget's fine print lets agencies keep unspent money: a $3.4 billion pile outside every reserve fund the state counts. No page of the budget shows the total. We counted it.
The Man Who Counts
Following South Carolina's money through the public record, one document at a time. By Mike Burkhold, candidate for SC Comptroller General.
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The Raise
South Carolina doubled what it spends in ten years and still has $6.6 billion sitting unspent.
Announced
The state can tell you what was promised to the second decimal. What came back, it says it cannot credibly measure.
One Sentence in the Code
State auditors are barred by law from the records that would show whether South Carolina’s job tax credits bought real jobs.
The Second Inspection
What's the penalty when a South Carolina agency ignores a state audit? A second audit. That's the whole penalty."
The Second Inspection
Seventeen of the auditors' thirty-nine fixes got done. The fourteen that would have checked the money did not.
The Honor System
South Carolina pays companies to create jobs, then takes their word the jobs exist. The records that would check sit unused since the mid-1990s.
The Honor System
South Carolina already owns the records that would verify these jobs. It stopped using them in the 1990s.
The Money That Never Came Back
The contract had a formula for getting the money back. It also had an escape clause.
The Money That Never Came Back
$5.2 million in broken job promises, and the clause that made collecting optional
Watch: the deal that came back bigger
The Hat Switch, in 60 seconds.