Why HCS gave school builder $1.5 million in tax cuts before gutting facilities department
For more than two years, Horry County Schools fought against giving school builder Firstfloor Energy Positive and its contractors tax breaks worth nearly $1.5 million. But the dispute quietly came to an end this year when Horry County Board of Education Chairman Ken Richardson signed off on the tax deal â shortly before the district gutted the part of its facilities department funded by capital dollars. Emails obtained through a public records request show how Firstfloor officials pursued the tax breaks, even refusing to sign off on a road project for a Carolina Forest school as an objec...