COLUMBIA — South Carolina’s economic development chief blames the state’s Department of Natural Resources for massive cost overruns on the site of the Scout Motors electric vehicle assembly plant.
“We ended up in a situation that they took a position that we did not expect them to take, and that resulted in substantial cost,” Commerce Secretary Harry Lightsey recently told Senate budget writers, who are putting their budget proposal together this week.
The state Department of Commerce has racked up more than $150 million in overages as it works to fulfill pledges it made to lure the Volkswagen subsidiary to the state. Now the agency is asking taxpayers to make up the difference…