SC panel secretly approves $36M grant for tire plant

By Rick Bundrett | The Nerve

Mum’s still the word when it comes to South Carolina officials doling out tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to select companies.

The Nerve on July 11 reported that the S.C. Department of Commerce wouldn’t release the official minutes of the June 5 meeting of the state Coordinating Council for Economic Development, at which, according to state and local officials, a nearly $36 million grant was awarded for the Giti Tire plant project in Chester County.

To put the state grant in perspective, it is larger than last fiscal year’s ratified budgets of 59 state agencies or divisions, as The Nerve reported in June.

Commerce spokeswoman Allison Skipper on July 3 – nearly a month after the CCED meeting — told The Nerve that the minutes had “not yet been prepared and must be reviewed and approved at its next quarterly meeting.”

at The Nerve.