While it is important that we keep all economic development tools in our toolbox, state funded economic incentives are not the ultimate answer for our state's long-term economic and job development strategy. Our strategy must be for North Carolina to be the best place for business in the nation. We must strive to provide a business environment that promotes business development, growth and success without the need for incentives, allowing for the creation of new jobs and opportunities for a rapidly growing population. This business environment must serve not only large corporations, but more importantly nurture small business, which creates the great majority of opportunities and jobs in our state. Our long-term strategy must embrace these five significant points:

• The lowest tax rates possible;

• The least possible regulatory interference;

• An effective and efficient education system that meets the changing needs of our citizens and business community;

• Ensure necessary transportation, utility, and communication infrastructure; and

• The lowest possible health care costs.

Our tax rates must be reasonable and competitive, but they are a function of state spending. We must focus our energies on setting our state spending priorities around the key responsibilities of state government and making certain we operate government effectively and efficiently. Only good fiscal management will allow us to reduce our tax rates to the lowest levels possible. State spending should be managed the same way our citizens have to manage their own personal finances. The Taxpayer Protection Act is a good place to start.

We must make certain that all of our rules and regulations continue to be relevant. There will always be a need for some regulatory controls to ensure safety, protect the environment, guarantee fiscal accountability, etc., but such rules and regulations should be periodically reviewed to verify current relevance and whether they in fact accomplish the intended goals or merely address bureaucratic agendas.

We must understand that our children are the customers of our public schools, and our schools' focus must be the success of our children and preparation for competing in a global economy. The importance of our community college system and our universities, both public and private, cannot be overstated in our economic development and jobs creation effort. To be competitive, and to ensure opportunities for our citizens, North Carolina must be committed to offering the best trained and most capable workforce.

We must demonstrate our commitment to provide safe and efficient movement of our people, goods, and services across our state, as well as ample energy and communication capabilities. The enhancement and maintenance of North Carolina's transportation infrastructure, our roads and bridges, are crucial to the state's economic development as well as the safety and quality of life of our citizens.

While there is much discussion about how to cover the rising cost of healthcare, most proposals promote government subsidies, government sponsored universal care, insurance purchasing pools, etc.. These proposals all attempt to treat the symptoms, but not the real problem. We need a comprehensive health plan for North Carolina that doesn't just try to identify ways to cover the costs, but rather ways to genuinely improve the health of North Carolinians and actually reduce the cost of health care.

We must aggressively implement a three-part plan to improve the health of North Carolinians while making health care more accessible and affordable by (1) creating a new "Culture of Health" by promoting, educating, encouraging, and providing new incentives for our citizens to make decisions that lead to healthy lifestyles, preventative care, and effective chronic disease management, (2) embracing a consumer-driven health care system which provides greater incentives for consumers to be more prudent in making their health choices, and (3) working to make our health care system as effective and efficient as possible, ensuring we are not spending dollars on activities that have no real health impact.

North Carolina's rapidly growing population offers great opportunities, but brings major challenges. If we are to meet these challenges in education, transportation, jobs creation, health care, public safety, etc., we must be successful in our economic development efforts. We must be willing to compete with other states and nations as necessary, with our primary focus on North Carolina's overall business environment. Where broad-based economic incentives may be necessary to accomplish our goals, we must be guided by a business analysis of cost versus benefit and ask the question, "Will the investment of taxpayer dollars result in the desired outcome and provide a beneficial return for North Carolina citizens?"

Published in the Charlotte Observer, April 30, 2008.