State officials planned to give Volvo $200 million to put its first US plant here.

An investigation by The Nerve, found more than $250 million in incentives so far by state and local governments including multimillion-dollar grants to an offer by a senator of free display space at Charleston International Airport.

That doesn’t include:

• At least $39 million by taxpayer-owned Santee Cooper which has a debt of more than $15 billion from a $9 billion failed nuclear plant and other debts.

Santee Cooper argues SC law requires it has to spend on economic development. But the utility was accumulating billions in debt for the now-abandoned nuclear project which likely will affect ratepayers’ future bills.

• An unknown amount of state and local tax breaks.

Public costs for Volvo likely will keep growing.

The SC Technical College System last week revealed that its cost of training more than 1,500 Volvo workers was at least $12.3 million.

Volvo plans to hire 3,900 more, likely costing millions more for training for the plant off I-26 north of Charleston near Ridgeville.

The gap often is large between what politicians call the public costs of bringing a company here and the actual taxpayer costs.

Taxpayers have no idea what officials promise prospects behind closed doors.

The Nerve asked the SC Department of Commerce for all cost-benefit analyses of the Volvo project but was told to submit a Freedom of Information Act request.

Government officials and others offered taxpayer-backed gifts to Volvo.

The SC Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism made Volvo the main sponsor of the former Family Circle Cup women’s pro tennis tournament at no cost to the company.

Dawn Dawson-House of PRT told The Nerve on Thursday that Commerce covered the $2.55 million in total sponsorship costs.

Brundrett is the news editor of The Nerve. Contact him at 803-254-4411 or rick@thenerve.org .