Beaufort County needs to focus on job creation, said Jay McRoy, one of eight candidates seeking one of the four available seats on the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners this election cycle.
“I think we have to create jobs — good-paying jobs — for the citizens of Beaufort County. I think more emphasis on students coming out of high school. All students are not four-year college material. Many of them to be trained in occupational skills that they can find jobs with,” McRoy, an incumbent Republican commissioner, said. “You have a lot of companies that are looking for people with specific training that the probably could obtain in high school and community college if steered in the right direction. I think that’s important. And we have to continue to try to recruit new businesses to Beaufort County.”
McRoy talked about incentives to lure new businesses to the county and help existing businesses.
“My preference on incentives is if we can get a new company to come to Beaufort County, I prefer the incentive where we give them a reduction in property taxes the first couple of years they are here because those are taxes we were not getting before they came here. … If we can get them here and get then creating jobs, the people getting jobs are going to spend money here in Beaufort County, they’re going to pay sales taxes, they’re going to pay property taxes. Eventually, with the incentives, the companies will be paying their own property taxes. It will be monies we didn’t have in the past,” McRoy said.
When it comes to building a new jail, McRoy said, the important thing is the security of jail employees. The working conditions for the jail employees are very poor, he said.
“I know that right now, with the economy like it is, I don’t feel the county can go out and borrow money to build a jail and raise property taxes to make those payments. I don’t think that’s a realistic thought,” McRoy said.
McRoy would like to see new businesses come to the county and expand its tax base, providing revenue to help pay for a new jail, which he believes will cost from $20 million to $25 million.
As for location, McRoy believes the new jail must be built on a site that will allow for expansion of the jail when needed.
“We don’t want to put it in a box where 10, 15 years down the road, conditions have changed and we don’t have enough capacity and we don’t have room to expand,” he said.
The existing jail is in a location where it can’t be expanded, he said.
“You don’t want to make that same mistake again,” McRoy said.