The Nerve

By RICK BRUNDRETT The S.C. Department of Commerce says it didn’t formally offer any taxpayer-backed incentives to lure Amazon’s second national headquarters to the Palmetto State, but instead provided general incentives information to counties if any of them wanted to compete for the project. Commerce spokeswoman Adrienne Fairwell told The Nerve on Tuesday she didn’t […]

By RICK BRUNDRETT Since 2015,14 companies that committed to locating or expanding in South Carolina collectively repaid nearly $7 million in state grants after failing to meet job creation or investment requirements, records show. Four of the companies closed plants in counties that received the grants, and another project never materialized, a review by The […]

By RICK BRUNDRETT Element TV, which announced last week it will close its television assembly plant in Fairfield County, had to create far fewer jobs than originally promised under a $1.3 million state grant, records obtained this week by The Nerve show. The Minnesota-based company hadn’t maintained even the reduced job target as of last […]

By RICK BRUNDRETT Plenty of buzz surrounded Element Electronics’ announcement five years ago that it would open a television assembly plant in Fairfield County, with then-Gov. Nikki Haley joining company officials in a live webcast from a Walmart-sponsored conference in Florida. But little information was publicly released then about the taxpayer costs of the planned […]