Beaufort County remains among N.C.’s 40 most distressed

For at least the sixth year in a row, Beaufort County will rank among the 40 most distressed counties in the state, according to a listing published by the N.C. Department of Commerce.

Beaufort County has been designated as a Tier 1 county for 2012 by the department, based on an assessment of the county’s unemployment rate, median household income, population growth and assessed property value per capita, according to Keith Crisco, department secretary, in a press release listing the tier designations for the state’s 100 counties.

In addition, any county with a population of less than 12,000 or a county with a population of fewer than 50,000 residents with 19 percent or more of those people living below the federal poverty level automatically are designated as among the most distressed counties, Crisco said.

“Our goal is to encourage economic development statewide so all of our residents can find good jobs regardless of their location in our state,” Crisco said in the press release. “These tier rankings provide important tools that help attract or retain businesses in all parts of North Carolina.”

Beaufort County has been designated as a Tier 1 county every year since 2007, according to Department of Commerce statistics.

For Tom Thompson, Beaufort County’s economic development director, the ranking is good news and bad news for the county.

With a population of 46,951 in 2010 and a poverty rate of 19.5 percent, Beaufort County qualifies for an automatic Tier 1 ranking.

The ranking means Beaufort County’s economy continues to struggle, Thompson said.

But it also means the county is eligible for grants that do not have to be matched with local funds and employers are eligible for tax breaks when they hire new workers in amounts not available to counties that have a higher ranking, Thompson said.

These grants and economic incentives have been used to establish industrial parks in Washington and Chocowinity, expand water and sewer services and make other improvements in the county’s infrastructure that help attract industries and expand the county’s economy, he said.

While Beaufort County is “not proud of being a Tier 1 county, it does make it easier to recruit,” he said. “All the major tax credits and all the major grants that are available to Tier 1 counties disappear with the Tier 2 designation.”

Using a statutory formula outlined in the 2006 Tax Credits for Growing Businesses – more commonly referred to as Article 3J tax credits – the Department of Commerce assembles required statistics for each of North Carolina’s 100 counties, applies the formula and assigns a tier designation ranking from one to three.

Tier 1 counties are the most economically distressed and Tier 3 counties are the least. Eligible businesses that locate in lower-tiered counties are eligible for some grant programs and larger tax credits than those that locate in higher-ranked areas.

Eight counties will change tier designations for 2012, according to the department.

Chowan and Yancey counties will shift from Tier 2 to a Tier 1. Alexander and Gates counties will move from Tier 1 to Tier 2 counties. Craven and Onslow counties, currently Tier 3 counties, will shift to a Tier 2 ranking. Lincoln and Watauga counties will move from a Tier 2 to a Tier 3 ranking.

The law calls for the 40 most distressed counties to become Tier 1 counties, the next 40 counties to be designated as Tier 2 and the 20 most prosperous counties to become Tier 3 counties.

East of U.S. Highway 17, only four counties – Brunswick, Carteret, New Hanover and Pender – earned Tier 3 rankings as the 20 most prosperous in the state. Seven counties – Camden, Craven, Currituck, Dare, Pamlico, Pasquotank and Perquimans – earned Tier 2 rankings. The remaining counties east of U.S. Highway 17 qualified for Tier 1 rankings.

Tier designations determine the available amount of tax credits for job creation and business property investment in a list of eligible industries.

They include manufacturing, motorsports, aircraft maintenance and repair, air courier services, warehousing, customer service call centers, research and development, electronic shopping and mail order houses, wholesale trade and information technology.

Potential benefits to companies under each tier designation include:

Tier 1 – $12,500 tax credit per new job with a requirement to create at least five jobs, and a 7 percent tax credit for eligible business property expenditures.

Tier 2 – $5,000 tax credit per new job with a requirement to create at least 10 jobs, and a 5 percent tax credit for eligible business property expenditures of more than $1 million.

Tier 3 – $750 tax credit per new job with a requirement to create at least 15 jobs, and a 3.5 percent tax credit for eligible business property expenditures of more than $2 million.

Beaufort County Demographics

• 2012 Tier Designation Tier 1
• 2010 Total Population  47,775
• 2010 Median Age 43
• 2010 Per Capita Income $20,355
• 2010 Median Family Income $48,946
• 2000 Percent of Population  19.5 percent below poverty level
• 2011 Second Quarter Unemployment Rate 11.4 percent
• 2011 First Quarter Total Private Industry 1,192

Pender County Demographics

• 2012 Tier Designation Tier 3
• 2010 Total Population 61,521
• 2010 Median Age 43
• 2010 Per Capita Income $21,997
• 2010 Median Family Income $53,225
• 2000 Percent of Population 13.6 percent below poverty level
• 2011 Second Quarter Unemployment Rate 10.8 percent
• 2011 First Quarter Total Private Industry 966

Source: N.C. Department of Commerce