Exhibit 7 — The Kiawah Handout
$32 Million of Your Money, Handed to Kiawah Developers
Alan Wilson cut the deal. Legislators smuggled it into the budget without a single committee debate, because they knew what it would look like in daylight.
In March 2026, Wilson negotiated a $37 million settlement with the developers of Captain Sams Spit, a 170-acre strip of coast at the mouth of the Kiawah River. South Carolina taxpayers are on the hook for $32 million of it, paid to developers for land the state had already warned them not to build on.15
The House put the money in its budget without the item going to subcommittee or committee. Republican lawmakers objected. Rep. Gil Gatch asked why Wilson would “give a handout to the developers” when they did not have a winning case. Rep. Joe White said judges had told him the state “would win this lawsuit” if it kept fighting. Wilson called the deal “a win for taxpayers…that closes a dispute that's been dragging on for years, before my time as attorney general.”25 The General Assembly approved the money in August.15,16