State officials have doled out millions of dollars in incentives to big corporations.

In Lexington County, these include tire manufacturer Michelin, internet retail giant Amazon and electronic-cigarette maker Juul.

The Commerce Department routinely blacks out information in the agreements that we sought, such as the estimated value of land, new buildings, machinery and equipment.

The agency usually refuses to reveal average pay for promised new jobs.

Commerce’s excuse for redactions is those records were “confidential proprietary information.”

In the agreements we received, the companies were allowed to decide what information to keep secret.

The SC Freedom of Information Act doesn’t define “proprietary” – one of the law’s many weaknesses.

The Legislative Audit Council wants to require:

• Companies receiving grants to report wages.

• Commerce and the Coordinating Council for Economic Development to report annually the new job and investment numbers, with comparisons to initial promised figures.

State officials have admitted to us that they don’t keep actual job numbers.

In January 2012, the Governor’s Office and Commerce told us they had no records on about 20,000 new jobs Gov. Nikki Haley claimed her administration recruited her 1st year.

Incentives deals are approved by the CCED, which by law is chaired by Commerce Secretary Hitt, a former BMW spokesman.

The CCED, which is run by Commerce in the agency’s headquarters in a highrise building across from the State House, typically discusses incentives in secret.

The LAC report noted that Commerce staff members will provide incentive applications only to those companies “for which the (Commerce) Secretary will recommend approval.”