Legislators discuss county development
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on February 2, 2016 1:46 PM
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From left, county attorney Borden Parker, county commissioner Ray Mayo and state Rep. Jimmy Dixon meet with other county commissioners and state representatives at Lane Tree Golf Club for breakfast on Monday morning.
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News-Argus/ETHAN SMITH
State Rep. Larry Bell discussed issues facing Wayne County, which range from economic development to education.
The Wayne County Board of Commissioners and several state representatives met at Lane Tree Golf Club Monday morning to discuss what issues need to be addressed by the state in Wayne County as the legislature prepares to head into its short session on April 25.
At the forefront of Monday morning's discussion were the issues of economic development in eastern North Carolina and an education system in Wayne County that leaves much to be desired.
Board chairman Joe Daughtery said North Carolina had become a state of "haves and have-nots," with Wayne County falling into the "have-not" category of the state.
"Economic development in eastern North Carolina is hurting. It's hurting," Daughtery said. "We hear about our state being the 'haves and the have-nots.' Well, it's true. It's absolutely true that if you are an economic developer in eastern North Carolina trying to get industry or jobs to come into our area, how are you going to compete with Charlotte? With Wake County? With the Triad? You can't. Let's be serious here. If you are in economic development, how are you going to get to the table? What are you going to offer that the other guys are not? I see no way around the fact that if we're going to bring economic development into eastern North Carolina, we're going to have to have the legislature recognize that and offer additional incentives if you go into our distressed areas."
Daughtery acknowledged that much had begun happening in eastern North Carolina with several major highway projects currently making their way down the pipe for Wayne County, but pleaded with state representatives to take some action at the state level that could spur further development in the area.
State Rep. Louis Pate said several chances for economic development had come to eastern North Carolina, such as the CSX hub that is looking to develop in Johnston County and is wanted by Wayne County.
Industry such as that is the key to development in the region, Pate said.
"You're not going to have a new university come here," Pate said. "You're not going to have a cultural center or something like that come here because the people who are behind that don't want to come here. They think we're foreigners or something. But we're blessed with two seaports, we're blessed with two railroads -- these are the things that we can build upon."
At the root of lagging economic development is a poor education system in the area, which state representative Jimmy Dixon said divides the populace into two categories -- tax payers and tax consumers.
Wayne County's current education system produces mostly tax consumers, he said.
This means that most of Wayne County's workforce is unqualified for most jobs produced by various industries that could produce major economic development in the area.
"You can have the best tax climate in the country, you can have zero regulations, you can give the most incentives, but if your workforce isn't qualified to do the job, they're not coming," said state Rep. John Bell. "We have areas in eastern North Carolina where we have the people, but we do not have an educated or qualified workforce. You can go around this county right here, but we've got some schools where the buildings are literally falling apart. There's no reason to have schools that are falling apart when in the neighborhood next to it, the cheapest house is $170,000. You've got people that move into our area but don't want to live here because our schools are so pitiful. We've got a major problem."
One such school that was talked about during the meeting was Goldsboro High School.
"We have drawn a line around that district, and we've told those people that they've got to go to school in that district," Dixon said. "Now, some people didn't like Goldsboro High School. What did they do? They voted with their feet. They moved. That is a tragedy."
Getting children who are being educated at Goldsboro High School to overcome their circumstances and become a tax payer instead of a tax consumer, as Dixon said, is a tremendous challenge.
"Those kids at Goldsboro High School are buried alive in their pitiful circumstances," Dixon said. "A person that has the wherewithal to vote with their feet -- they're gonna vote with their feet, and they're gonna move. So, what you're going to do is have stagnation of people who can't get out of their situation. And we're not going to change that."
County commissioner Wayne Aycock furthered this point by citing the statistic that one-third of all pilots on Seymour Johnson Air Force Base live in Johnston County because they do not want their children going to school in Wayne County.
At the end of the meeting, the state representatives and county commissioners agreed to reconvene in several weeks to further discuss what can be done about the issues raised on Monday morning, though no firm date was set.