Taxes and Spending

Hidden costs: How state agencies quietly spend above their budgets

By RICK BRUNDRETT The adopted state budget for the current fiscal year that ends June 30 totaled more than $42 billion, though a low-key state office quietly approved an additional $858 million in collective “other” or federal fund spending requests after the fiscal year started, records show. And since the...

Rick Brundrett

Written by
May 05, 2025

  • Hidden costs: How state agencies quietly spend above their budgets

    By RICK BRUNDRETT The adopted state budget for the current fiscal year that ends June 30 totaled more than $42 billion, though a low-key state office quietly approved an additional $858 million in collective “other” or federal fund spending requests after the fiscal year started, records show. And since the...
    Rick Brundrett

    Written by
    May 05, 2025

  • SC awash in multibillion-dollar surplus of 'other' funds

    By RICK BRUNDRETT In South Carolina, $8.6 billion represents about $1,600 for every man, woman and child. It’s also the total amount of “other” fund surpluses that state agencies carried into the start of this fiscal year, The Nerve found in a review of records provided by the S.C. Department...
    Rick Brundrett

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    April 23, 2025

  • Taxpayer tab now at $8M to investigate disputed $1.8B, related matters

    UPDATE: 4/21/25 - After hours of debate, the S.C. Senate voted 33-8 to remove state Treasurer Curtis Loftis from office for “willful neglect of duty” under a provision of the S.C. Constitution that requires a two-thirds vote of both chambers. The removal resolution will go to the S.C. House for...
    Rick Brundrett

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    March 31, 2025

  • State agencies reveal hiring outside lawyers after initial denials

    UPDATE: 4/21/25 - After hours of debate, the S.C. Senate voted 33-8 to remove state Treasurer Curtis Loftis from office for “willful neglect of duty” under a provision of the S.C. Constitution that requires a two-thirds vote of both chambers. The removal resolution will go to the S.C. House for...
    Rick Brundrett

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    March 31, 2025

  • State treasurer dodges key questions on $1.8B controversy

    By RICK BRUNDRETT Under questioning last April at a state legislative hearing, longtime S.C. Treasurer Curtis Loftis answered “yes” when asked by then-Sen. Mike Fanning if the mystery $1.8 billion was “real money that I can touch,” and if it could be withdrawn “today.” Loftis, a Republican who was first...
    Rick Brundrett

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    January 29, 2025

  • Cost of investigating mystery $1.8B already overbudget

    UPDATE: 1/15/25 - In a 65-page report released late this afternoon, AlixPartners, a New York-based global consulting firm, determined that about $1.6 billion of the mystery $1.8 billion "did not represent real cash." Instead, the approximately $1.6 billion was "incorrectly recorded" to a bank fund as part of a transition years...
    Rick Brundrett

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    January 15, 2025

  • Most S.C. municipalities don't livestream regular meetings

    Editor’s note: This is another story in a planned series of stories on livestreaming and other transparency issues affecting local or state government in South Carolina. By RICK BRUNDRETT More than two-thirds of the 271 incorporated towns and cities in South Carolina do not livestream their regular council meetings, The...
    Rick Brundrett

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    December 17, 2024

  • Low bidders bypassed for state contract to probe mystery $1.8B

    By RICK BRUNDRETT A global consulting firm hired by the state to investigate the mystery $1.8 billion and related financial questions was not the low bidder for the “potential” $3 million contract, records obtained by The Nerve show. But under state law, procurement officials don’t have to accept the lowest...
    Rick Brundrett

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    September 19, 2024

  • $1.8B mystery could cost SC taxpayers millions to solve

    By RICK BRUNDRETT The S.C. taxpayer tab for outside attorneys and accountants hired in connection with investigations into the mystery $1.8 billion could run up to more than $5 million, records show. And so far, no state agencies are claiming their share of the $1.8 billion, while a state task...
    Rick Brundrett

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    July 30, 2024

  • Mystery $1.8B task force advised by firm with Trump ties

    By RICK BRUNDRETT Update 7/3/24: Four days after we published this story on a global law firm with experience in federal securities investigations that has advised a state task force on the mystery $1.8 billion, the state issued a formal request for proposals – due by July 9 – to...
    Rick Brundrett

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    June 20, 2024