Forsyth County commission candidates debated by district for the first time this campaign season during an event organized by the local Republican Party.The Tuesday night debate in the commissioners meeting room had a crowd that fluctuated by district, with the five candidates in northern 4 drawing the biggest group.Two candidates each in Districts 2 and 5 also took turns fielding questions and rebutting each other’s points.All candidates who have qualified to run are Republicans, so the July 31 primary likely decide the winners. Voting is conducted by district.Local party Chairman Ethan Underwood, who moderated the debate, said the group does not nominate candidates before the primary.Rather, the party hopes to “provide information to the public to help them make the best choice,” he said.“All the questions are candidate neutral and the intent is to flesh out information,” Underwood said.District 4Bringing business to the county took center stage in the debate for the five candidates in Forsyth’s northern district.All announced candidates were present, including incumbent Patrick Bell and challengers Tim Hubbard, Charles Meagher, Cindy Jones Mills and Bill Mulrooney.The group agreed that attracting business would grow the county’s tax digest and reduce the burden on homeowners. But the candidates differed on how best to achieve that goal.Bell said he’s been focused on the issue during his first term, citing examples such as the creation of an opportunity zone in the Hammond’s Crossing area and his proposal to phase out the inventory tax.Mulrooney and Hubbard also called for the elimination of the inventory tax, which Mulrooney said was “basic Reaganomics.”Meagher and Mills, however, expressed concern that cutting the tax could cause the school board to raise property taxes to meet that shortfall.“I am for the elimination of the tax as soon as a plan is put together that shows how that tax will be not on the homeowners to fund the 70 percent of the proceeds to help our schools stay in business,” Meagher said.As other questions were posed, Meagher continued to debate the issue with Bell, who said he thinks the school board can find the money if the tax were to be phased out, and that isn’t his concern as a commissioner.Other ideas for spurring business growth included Mills’ Fast Forward Forsyth program, which would seek to reduce redundancies in the unified development code to streamline the process of development.Bell countered that he has already worked on this.Mills then said that District 4 has had no new property zonings in the past four years.“I would like to see that changed,” she said.