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Recently @postandcourier published an opinion arguing the South Carolina Department of Commerce should keep subsidy information hidden from the public view. It contained several common misunderstandings and flaws. A thread: https://www.postandcourier.com/opinion/commentary/commentary-why-sc-commerce-needs-to-keep-business-information-secret/article_56988610-1852-11eb-b367-13eb5cd7b461.html
There is no evidence that incentive transparency negatively impacts a state’s business climate or economic development. In fact, the opposite is true: It leads to better accountability and is a common practice. Want proof? https://www.goodjobsfirst.org/subsidy-tracker
No one is asking for company tax returns or employees’ personal information, just a list of companies that benefit from subsidies and how much they receive in public assistance. Let me repeat: No tax returns. NC, MS, KY, FL and many more states put incentive data online.
Disclosing subsidy applications, contracts or MOUs between a state and a company will not impact the company's operations. Other states have shared those documents with us - Mississippi for example, and some states put them online, like Florida: http://fldeoportal.force.com/IncentivePortalSearch_Lightning
There are costs behind every economic development deal. When taxes are abated, less revenue is available to public services such as schools or infrastructure. Our research documented South Carolina public schools losing $423M in FY 19. People should know where that revenue went.
South Carolina residents can't fully educate themselves about incentives w/o having access to basic data: Which companies are getting subsidies? How much? Are they creating jobs? Was this a good deal? To have educated opinions, ppl must know a deal’s costs to track its benefits.
Our research shows that while politicians routinely praise small businesses for their contributions to job creation, they give big corporations the majority of incentives. Small businesses also deserve to know how much larger companies are getting. https://www.goodjobsfirst.org/sites/default/files/docs/pdf/shortchanging.pdf
Unfortunately, South Carolina is one of the worst states for transparency in the country. But it doesn't have to be like this. It is time for a meaningful change. Want to help? We have suggestions: https://bit.ly/GJFAccountableDevelopment
