South Carolina senator blocking tax breaks for Carolina Panthers offers compromise
COLUMBIA, SC -- The most vocal critic of a deal to lure the Carolina Panthers’ headquarters and practice facilities to Rock Hill has proposed a path forward.
State Sen. Dick Harpootlian, a Columbia Democrat who is blocking a tax incentives package for the NFL team from passing the Senate, asked Gov. Henry McMaster Wednesday to meet with senators in private to provide a more detailed breakdown of the move’s benefits for South Carolina before the Senate votes on whether to offer more than $115 million in tax breaks to the Panthers.
“I am unable to vote on this use of public money to benefit a private corporation without a crystal clear understanding of the purported merits of the deal,” the freshman senator wrote in a three-page letter to McMaster. “Anything less invites public distrust of our actions, and rightly so.”
The Richland Democrat has warned state leaders he will continue to block the bill until senators get a better breakdown of the costs and benefits of Panthers’ owner David Tepper’s proposal to move the team and about 150 employees from Charlotte to York County.
Read more: https://www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/article229365624.html