YOUR TAXES AT WORK

A senator wants to know how state officials use tax money as incentives.

Sen. Dick Harpootlian is suing to force the Commerce Department to disclose how it doles out millions to lure businesses to the state.

Harpootlian, who represents the Irmo area in the Senate, said the agency’s secrecy makes it impossible to discern whether taxpayers actually benefit.

The outspoken Democrat sued for information the agency refused to provide about its deals with Giti Tire in Chester County and the defunct Viva Recycling in Berkeley County.

His lawsuit cites articles in the Charleston Post and Courier about the massive cleanup at the former tire recycler paid for by taxpayers and lawsuits indicating Giti isn’t paying its bills.

Giti Tire opened with much fanfare 2 years ago.

Commerce officials said the company’s 1st US plant would create 1,700 jobs.

How many work there is unclear. But a lawsuit filed in August claims the company began missing payments for contract employees as early as January 2018.

“Were solid business decisions made or are we giving money to folks based on job numbers that sound like a good deal?” he told the Post and Courier.

Last year, the Post and Courier documented Viva’s string of bankruptcies in the Northeast before launching their tire-recycling projects in South Carolina.

Despite those failures, state and local officials greased their entry into South Carolina in 2013 by approving tax-exempt bonds. Viva lost its operating permit 4 years later.

Neither the public nor legislators who approve Commerce’s budget know how it spends its money, he said.

He wants a judge to tell Commerce what it legally must disclose.

Harpootlian is a Columbia attorney and former prosecutor. He sent 2 Freedom of Information requests to Commerce in August.

Commerce blacked out total incentives, the agency’s analysis for taxpayer costs and benefits and who signed the state contracts.

State law allows agencies to withhold trade secrets, personal information and proposed contracts.

Commerce spokesman Alex Clark said the agency responded to the requests “as we routinely do in full compliance with the law.”

Harpootlian argues the agency is hiding behind vague wording in the law that no longer applies.

“Those deals are done. There are no trade secrets

“What we see,” he said, “is their unwillingness to tell the taxpayers how much they spent, what they spent it for and did we get our money’s worth.”