Donald Addu: Funding our future

The Oct. 1 Point of View “Clearing the air on our progress” provided well-deserved praise to the Department of Environmental Quality for the improvement in North Carolina’s air quality but is right that we still have progress to be made.

There is a recurring theme within the legislative building, a sophomoric ideology that praises the progressive past while envisioning a regressive future. The lawmakers praise our state’s natural beauty but remove environmental protection, tout high-tech industry but cut university funding.

We have been told the reduction in state taxes will bring jobs, but North Carolina has the fastest growing solar energy industry because of investment, not tax cuts.

It was a progressive tax that made North Carolina the Silicon Valley of medicine and biotech. These industries exist because of the quality of education in the state, from kindergarten to the best university system in the country.

We stand out because we invested in our health, our research, our education and our natural beauty. We stand out because we invested in ourselves.

Our new regressive path defunds us, steals our dividends and seals a future that will hold no praise. It is time to get back to the business of funding our future.

This story was originally published October 7, 2015 at 6:09 PM with the headline "Donald Addu: Funding our future."