A Lexington County senator wants state officials to quit wasting tax dollars in secret deals.

“The Department of Commerce refuses to tell us how they spent billions of South Carolina taxpayer dollars in giveaways to out-of-state corporations to entice them to locate here,” said Sen. Dick Harpootlian who represents Irmo and St. Andrews.

“While incentives might be necessary in some cases to convince some businesses to locate to South Carolina, we rarely know how much they got and was it reasonable,” he said.

Harpootlian was an early critic of the 2019 deal to bring the Carolina Panthers pro football team’s headquarters to Rock Hill.

Commerce officials promised the Panthers’ billionaire owner David Tepper a huge package of incentives to build what he called his headquarters in Rock Hill.

The offer required a change to state law and other senators balked.

Commerce eventually got what it wanted but triggered a war Harpootlian has been waging since.

This month, it was reported that Rock Hill officials are apparently unable to borrow the money they promised the Panthers as their part of the deal.

The Senate Democrat has been joined by Republican Sen. Wes Climer of Rock Hill as critics of the deal in Climer’s backyard.

“A Legislative Audit Council report Sen. Climer and I requested shows they rarely claw back money from businesses who don’t meet their promised job creation,” Harpootlian said.

“There were literally no audits to verify those job creation numbers.

“The Commerce Department said they relied on the honor system and let businesses who received tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer dollars and tax credits determine if they had met the requirements of their agreement” Harpootlian said.

“Literally the fox guarding the henhouse.”

The SC Policy Council’s Rick Brundrett has found examples of unfulfilled corporate promises which the Chronicle has published.

Harpootlian told the Chronicle, “If you or I relied on the honor system to verify contract compliance in our private businesses we would go broke.

“Because the Department of Commerce has an endless supply of your money, they never will.”