By RICK BRUNDRETT
Special to the Chronicle
SC legislators, governors, and local governments have given away billions to countless corporations. 
Cash, land, tax breaks and free job training went to Amazon, Juul and Michelin in Lexington County in exchange for promised jobs.
The General Assembly has borrowed much of the money, forcing taxpayers to pay hundreds of millions of dollars over many years.
Did politicians who made these deals possible keep their promises of more jobs and investments?
That’s what we have been asking since 2010.
We repeatedly asked state and local officials for details on secret deals giving taxpayers’ money to companies locating or expanding here.
 We wanted to know the actual number of jobs created and how many South Carolinians were hired, what each company’s investment was and the true costs to taxpayers.
The Department of Commerce wouldn’t answer. 

Why?

For their answer, see this week's Lexington County Chronicle on news stands Wednesday and home delivered Thursday.