SC officials won’t release details of $35.7M grant for tire plant

By Rick Brundrett | The Nerve

On June 16, Gov. Nikki Haley announced that Singapore-based Giti Tire would locate a $560 million manufacturing plant in Chester County, bringing 1,700 jobs over 10 years.

Less than two weeks earlier, on June 5, the county was approved for a $35,775,000 state grant to “offset the costs of land acquisition and real property improvements to support Giti Tire,” Commerce spokeswoman Allison Skipper said in a July 3 letter to The Nerve.

The Nerve reported last month that the grant amount is larger than the total ratified 2013-14 budgets of 59 state agencies or divisions.

Skipper’s letter was in reply to a June 19 request by The Nerve under the S.C. Freedom of Information for, among other things, copies of any state incentives agreements for the tire plant project. Commerce can’t release those records because, according to Skipper, the agreements have not been finalized – a typical answer given toThe Nerve when it requests incentives agreements.

at The Nerve.