South Carolina "Loses" $1.8 Billion—Which Never Existed in the First Place!

South Carolina "Loses" $1.8 Billion—Which Never Existed in the First Place!

South Carolina just pulled off the financial equivalent of looking for your sunglasses for hours… while they were on your head the whole time.

Let’s break it down:

Back in the dark ages (2007-2011), then-Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom botched an accounting switch so badly that he accidentally invented $3.5 billion.

Every year, the mistake got worse, and nobody fixed it.

Eckstrom finally resigned, and a new guy came in to clean up the mess.

That’s when things got even dumber.

State Treasurer Curtis Loftis had a similar issue when he oversaw another accounting system change in 2016.

This time, $1.8 billion in state treasury funds magically appeared—money that never actually existed.

But instead of admitting that South Carolina was holding Monopoly money, Loftis insisted the cash was real.

An audit by AlixPartners (a real financial firm, not some guys in a basement) confirmed: nope, fake money.

And now? Everyone in government is scrambling to blame someone else.

But here’s the kicker: South Carolina is run by Republicans, the same party that claims to be the guardians of fiscal responsibility. If they can’t even count real money, should they really be managing billions in taxpayer dollars?

Maybe it’s time to take a different approach—like hiring officials who can actually do math.