Here’s more bad news for Lexington County taxpayers.
Since the state owns SC Electric & Gas’s nuclear partner Santee Cooper, taxpayers may have to bail it out of a $11.4 billion debt.
A Santee Cooper consultant said completion costs including interest, would increase from $8.1 billion. 
When the utility and its partner SCE&G abandoned their $9 billion nuclear fiasco, Santee Cooper had already spent $4.5 billion.
That was its share of costs as a 45% partner. Added costs of closing the project could almost double that,
“Santee Cooper has no equity,” according to Carl Surran of online stock analyst Seeking Alpha. 
“Debt is held by [the]state. Citizens [are] now on line to pay that debt.”
Federal investigators are going into that debt on “who said what and when did they say it,” he said.
SC in trouble
The state lacks the money to pay that off. According to State Data Lab’s financial analysis last year:
• South Carolina owes more than it owns. The state has an $18,100 per taxpayer burden.
• Elected officials created the tax burden. The state has only $12.5 billion to pay bills totaling $38.7 billion.
• This puts the state in a $26.2 billion financial hole. To fill it, each South Carolina taxpayer would have to send $18,100 to the state.
•Despite a new accounting standard to increase transparency, the state excludes a $7.4 billion pension debt from its balance sheet.
• The state hides $13.8 billion of its retiree health care debt that states must report starting this year.
Offer changed
Last week, questions about constitutional violations by the Base Load Review Acts changed an offer to buy SCE&G and its SCANA owners.
 Dominion Energy altered an offer for SCANA by essentially doubling the monthly rebates on electric rates but rescinding the $1,000 per home refund.
Both offers are on the table. Dominion prefers the original which transfers more debt to ratepayers. 
Whistle blowers within SCE&G have reported that their bosses told them to bury negative information about the nuclear construction as early as 2015. 
Carl Surran of Seeking Alpha said the public seems to feel “the best solution is to let SCE&G to go bankrupt.
“Any politician who supports a plan that passes the nuclear debt onto ratepayers is forfeiting his/her political career. It’s impossible to predict how this fiasco will play out but ... a successful merger is becoming less and less likely.”