A Republican Candidates Forum, organized by the Brown County Republican Party, took place Tuesday evening at Victory Life Church. The three-plus hour event featured introductory and closing comments, along with question and answer sessions, with candidates for Brown County Judge, County Commissioner in Precincts 2 and 3, and Justice of the Peace in Precincts 3 and 4.
The following are the excerpts from the comments and questions answered by County Commissioner Precinct 2 candidates Bo E. Allen, Jeff Hoskinson and incumbent Joel Kelton
Bo E. Allen
Opening and closing comments
I have a desire to serve and at this time I feel like it’s best for me to move forward into the commissioners court and I hope I get your support. No matter who you pick we have good guys, but I think I’m the best choice. I think everybody for their support over the last 35 years I’ve been on the school board, and the 40 years I’ve been on the fire department with a passion to serve Brown County. I just hope I get the opportunity to continue, with a passion, to serve Brown County.
Regarding his qualifications for the job
It’s the same thing to me as being on the school board or being on the fire department, I have a passion and I care. I care about the outcome, I care about the school district, I care about the kids, I care about the county. I’m one of those guys that if you’re looking around May, Texas and say hey I need to get something done, do you know how many things I’ve chaired, how many things I’ve led? This is just a new thing for me, something where I can actually give back to the entire county, not just Precinct 2.
Regarding where to spend funds aside from roads and bridges
Obviously, I think we can all agree that our sheriff’s office is our football team. I hate to keep bringing up school with analogies. (Sheriff) Vance (Hill) and I actually had a conversation today about that, and I’m going to support him in anything that he wants to do to make sure its advantageous for the county.
I also want to look at any kind of infrastructure we could do for the county to make Brown County more attractive to businesses or some other source of revenue so that we can get jobs in the county. I don’t know for sure what that’s going to be, but you can ask me a year from now if I’m your commissioner and I’ll let you know what that is.
Regarding how American Rescue Plan funds should be spent
Infrastructure, water is going to be vital to Brown County. Depending on whether it rains or not for Lake Brownwood to fill up is not really putting ourselves in a good position. We have to figure out how to solve that problem whether it’s water treatment plants that are improved or use more of our wastewater.
Regarding his thoughts on tax abatements for renewable energy projects
I worked in the oil and gas business for 30-plus years, and I have never once got a tax abatement for anything. I don’t believe the solar or the wind turbines are financially viable at this point. I don’t see why taxpayers have to pay for something that’s not viable. I think it’s vital we have wind and solar or an alternative of some sort, I really do, because oil and gas is going to run out, it’s not going to last forever. If we keep giving them money, they’re not going to do the necessary research to make their source of energy viable to be productive where we can count on it on a day-to-day basis.
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Jeff Hoskinson
Opening and closing comments
I just see some things in Precinct 2 I’d like to change. I’m running for this position not only for that, but I want to serve the people. I’ve decided if you elect me … I’m going to be a servant to Brown County. I put in my ad I want to be full time and what that means is I’m a hands-on person. I’m not one to just go to court, I just want to do office work, I want to help the guys work. I want to do some things to better my county, my precinct.
Regarding his qualifications for the job
One thing that I think qualifies me is I’ve been in business for over 35 years doing mostly road work and dirt work and septic systems. In my business I’ve been in lots of adventures, and I would like to serve Brown County because I can bring all that to the floor and use that experience to better my precinct. I have a large background in construction, and I just think that give me qualification, that and my business ethics, and I’d like to apply them to Brown County.
Regarding where to spend funds aside from roads and bridges
One thing is the sheriff’s office. As more people move here, we have lots of people moving here from lots of different places. Any time you have growth, it’s not always good people, there’s bad people that follow too. One thing I would do highly is support the sheriff’s office. They have an elected sheriff and if he brings something to us, I believe the people voted him for a reason and more than likely I would always go along with (Sheriff) Vance (Hill) in anything that he needed.
Something else that needs to be looked at is some of the volunteer fire departments. They struggle to make it. I don’t know if a lot of you know about ISO but if you have foam trucks and a lot of things that lower your insurance rate if you have a good fire department, and you live within a certain distance.
Regarding how American Rescue Plan funds should be spent
A lot of the money, wherever it’s allocated to, whatever needs to be done, one thing that I do believe is it needs to be out there and used quickly. It doesn’t need to be held up, it needs to be used, and as long as it’s being used to better our county, and as long as those people are accountable for the money they get, and we see they are accountable, and we hold them accountable to what they get.
Regarding his thoughts on tax abatements for renewable energy projects
I will tell you I’m highly against tax abatements, not totally against tax abatements but for wind energy and solar energy, I would be against that. One reason why is most of all your wind energy and solar energy is funded by government. Those people are already getting government funds, now they come to our county, and they want us to give them another break. We’ve lived here our whole lives and we’re all paying taxes. If anybody deserves a break, I believe it’s the taxpayers of Brown County.
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Joel Kelton
Opening and closing comments
I believe I’m a strong voice for Precinct 2 in Brown County. I bring a commonsense approach to local government, which means I’m also a strong conservative. I try to be a straightforward, no-nonsense kind of guy. I’m very frugal at budget time, so might say I’m a tightwad and I’m OK with that. I understand though that we must meet our needs and requirements while still keeping the tax rate as low as possible, and that’s not an easy task. I’m dedicated to do what’s best for Precinct 2 and Brown County as a whole and I would appreciate your continued support.
Regarding his qualifications for the job
I believe my years and background in and around construction and equipment are a plus. My experience working with a budget, working with and for other people, and my problem-solving skills, my ability to work well with others, and I’m always available.
Regarding where to spend funds aside from roads and bridges
Things change as we go along. Recently priorities have change because we’ve been hit with COVID and we’ve received money for that. I classify things three ways – one can do the things you shall or must do, then you do the things that you need to do, which there’s no end to that, then if you had any money left, which there isn’t then you do the things you want to do. There are always things that need to be done, there’s always problems that arise, there’s always projects that need to be done and you have to prioritize those items and judge their needs on merit and spread that out as far as it goes.
Regarding how American Rescue Plan funds should be spent
We’ve spent some of the funds, not all of them, but some of the funds we’ve received on some volunteer organizations that do a lot of good things for Brown County that weren’t able to do their fundraisers and we supplemented those, those were some of the smaller things. We’ve worked with some of the rural water systems to help them meet some needs after the freeze of February of last year. There were things that came up like generators and alternative sources of energy to keep the water systems running.
There are still things coming from the COVID money that we’re holding back. We’re not out of this year, I know we’re moving forward but we have bills yet to come. It’s another one of those things where we have changing goals but we will use those wisely, but we’ll have to take some of these things as they come.
Regarding his thoughts on tax abatements for renewable energy projects
We all know it was a highly debated thing. Any tax abatement that comes before you, you need to look at. Wind and solar are different, big business is different from that. In the recent solar thing, we had good folks from both sides battling pretty hard for and against. Some of the ones that were against were very loud and very ugly. It’s a bad spot to be caught dead in the middle of that. In the end, it really isn’t about how I feel about solar or wind, you have to look and see what it does for the county, and you have to listen to your voters.
More information on each candidate can be found at Candidates | Brownwood News
To watch the forum in its entirety, click the following link: Candidates Forum Live Stream | (koxe.com)
Stories on the Precinct 3 County Commissioner candidates Justice of the Peace candidates will be published later today.