And values of importance to montana. From the montana pbs studios on montanaus of university. Good evening, welcome to montanas debate. We would like to welcome listeners joining us across the state. We utilize our inclusion requirements which are available on our website. The candidates meeting the criteria are here tonight. Republican congressman and montanas Lieutenant Governor, democrat mike cooney. We appreciate having everyone here in person. We are safely distance. And ready for a good debate. Each candidate will have an initial 90 seconds to answer each question. Then there will be a chance for rebuttal and followup questions. Debateill finish the with a 92nd closing statement from each candidate. Lets start with a topic that montana continues to deal with. Seeing a recent spike and covid19 cases. Just today, the state saw a record new cases. According to a group that tracks covid19 affections across interstates, we are currently fourth in the nation for infections. If elected governor, whether be a point that you decide to take more drastic measures than we currently have . This first cursor congressman forte. Thank you. It is a pleasure to be here. I want to open by saying that we do have Serious Problems both healthwise and economically here in the state. We need serious solutions. I know that you expect leadership, not partisanship from this discussion. My commitment to you tonight is that i will focus on serious solutions. And good dialogue, not petty partisan politics. Before get to the question. If you elect me as your next governor. Dedicate my entire salary to charity here in montana. This is one way that i can continue to serve. My wife and i have lived the american dream. For me this is about giving back. I went to see Better Outcomes for all men all montanans. We need to take action. By the work that is going on nationally to get a vaccine in place. Ive hopeful that we will have a vaccine by the end of the year. I would be coming into office in january. I hope that we have more tools in the box. Weve got to make sure we keep the most vulnerable safe, but we also have to make sure we cure the economic pandemic that has been created as a result of some of the actions we have taken. Thank you. Lieutenant governor cooney. Mr. Cooney thank you very much, and thank you, pbs, for having this debate and for the people of montana. This is an incredibly important discussion right now. This epidemic is crucial. When washington punted this to the states, governor bullock and i immediately started working day and night, making sure we got the ppe for the people of montana, making sure we are getting the testing material so we can keep montana and the frontline workers safe and healthy. I think our strategy works pretty well. Right now we have one of the , lowest rates of infection right out of the country. Not too many people are getting infected. We have one of the lowest death rates in the country. Yet almost 200 montanans have died, that is an acceptable. That is unacceptable. Our unemployment is one of the strongest in the middle of the pandemic compared to a lot of other states. The bottom line is too many montanans are out of work. We have a lot of work to do. We need to use science. We need to make sure people are wearing their masks. Make sure we are testing people. Make sure we are using hygiene and keeping away from big crowds. That is what science says will make sure we whip this thing quickly. Getting people back to work. My opponent has voted to cut health care. Theres a case before the u. S. Supreme court on november 10. That case may drive a nail into the coffin of health care, he supports that. Cutting health care in the middle of a pandemic is not what is right for montana in order to get this economy going. Thank you, Lieutenant Governor. We are going to open things up. Chance for some rebuttal, followup and direct questions. And to start this we start with , congressman gianforte. Mr. Gianforte i dont know how we got on health care, i am happy to address that. Im proud of my record in congress on health care. I voted consistently to protect people with preexisting conditions, to continue rural access to health care, and to bring the cost down. I tooked two take on big pharma to reduce pharmaceutical costs. But back on covid. I think the issue is the actions that have been taken have created an economic pandemic. In the state here, we have lost 150,000 jobs. Many Small Businesses have closed. Recently, i heard a story that augusta had to cancel the rodeo. The monday following, four businesses had to file for bankruptcy and may never open again. We need a comeback plan to get our economy opened back up. Thats why i published exactly that. You can find it on montanabusinessplan. Com. It will get our economy back up. It will create more good paying jobs for all montanans. Mr. Cooney congressman, covid happens to be a very Serious Health problem. This virus does not care if you are a millionaire or president of the United States or whoever you are. We have lost nearly 200 people in montana alone. That is unacceptable. That is why we need to continue to use the best science, to make sure we are keeping our montana people healthy. We cant open the economy if our people arent healthy. If our customers arent healthy and if our workers arent healthy, business cant be healthy. So we need to focus on bringing , health to our people in order to bring health to our economy. Thats what im going to do when im governor. Im going to continue to lead that way to make sure we are using the best science. Science is going to lead us down this path of success in fighting this virus. Making sure people are wearing their masks, making sure they are socially distancing. That is what we need to do to get people back to work. Congressman gianforte. Mr. Gianforte it is a very serious situation. I think everyone would agree that even a single lost life is a tragedy. That is why think from a Public Policy perspective, when i am your next governor, we will focus on keeping our frontline workers safe. Our health care workers. We need to get our schools open backup. I believe we can do that safely. In the cares act that i voted for, we sent 1. 2 billion to the state of montana to help montana reopen their schools, preserve the hospital and rural care. Yet, most of it is still sitting on mikes watch. It should have helped us open our schools. We need to protect the most vulnerable in our senior centers, but we need to go on with our lives. Let me say, i trust montanans with their health from a Public Policy perspective. I think we should keeping the most vulnerable safe, but i trust montanas health and the health of their loved ones. The Governors Office should be issuing guidelines to do that. Final word to Lieutenant Governor cooney. Mr. Cooney montanans could go to a website and see how that money is being spent. Again, we will continue to work to keep montanans safe and healthy. Congressman, you are not being honest to the people of montana on your approach here. You support herd immunity. According to the science and experts in this country, montana could lose upwards to 10,000 people to get to herd immunity and theres no guarantee. That is not using the best science. I just think this is such a tragedy. When you see the president of the United States and members of the white house and the first family each and every day coming out with more and more cases of this virus, that should tell everybody we cannot let our guard down. We need to be vigilant. And we again will not get our economy going until we have healthy people. As governor, i believe by i will lead by example. Thank you both. We will move forward. You both alluded to it, the economic part of this recovery. Today, President Trump broke off the stimulus negotiations, saying hes going to address it after the elections. However, there is majority support for another stimulus package. It should arrive during our next governors first term. The state does have some oversight and discretion with some of those funds. Our question is what would be your top priority in terms of allocating those funds to montanans . Where do you see the greatest need in this recovery . Lieutenant governor, we will start with you. Mr. Cooney we are very fortunate that our state budget was built in a way by the last legislature, democrats and republicans working with the Governors Office, in such a way we are in a strong position as we are in the middle of this covid crisis. A lot of states had to wait in order to do the basic services for their federal dollars. We didnt have to do that. Our budget is strong enough. We didnt get there by accident. We got there because we worked hard, we showed up every day. Working with republicans and democrats. We have a great budget that is going to get us through and we have to be careful about how we manage that budget and make sure we are dealing with it. Again, we need to be focusing on getting people back to work. Making sure we are doing everything to keep people healthy in this crisis. That is how we are going to get the economy going again. I will just say those dollars need to go to main street businesses. Those dollars need to go to people weve been getting money out to meatpackers. Getting money out to people on main street. Weve been getting money into the schools so we can open our schools up safely and healthy. We have been talking we brought a Bipartisan Group of people together to help us build this plan. We have been following that plan. We are accountable for it. You can go online and take a look and see where every one of those dollars have been committed and spent. That is called being responsible and being transparent. That is how i will be as governor. We will continue that. John thank you. Congressman gianforte. Mr. Gianforte we need to get our economy open again. That is why i was proud to sponsor and vote for the cares act which got money out to the payroll protection program. We got money to our rural hospitals. Money to our ag producers. When the government shuts down the economy, the government has an obligation to help open backup. I was disappointed that the discussions in washington broke down. There was a bipartisan solution in the house that nancy pelosi blocked, that could have put more money in the hands of Small Business owners. But even before the covid crisis hit, montana was 44th in the nation in wages. We can do better. Montana deserves better. I was in fort benton over the weekend and we had a group of , about 100 folks in a setting. I asked them how many of you have kids or grandkids that no longer live here in the state of montana . And it was tragic, but virtually every hand in that audience went up. Folks, even before this covid crisis started, we have been exporting beef, grain, and our kids. Ive spent my entire career creating jobs, putting people to work. Im looking forward, our comeback plan lays it out. We need to reduce the red tape in helena. We need to lower the tax rates. We need to invest in trades education. We need to increase our Processing Capacity for the egg ag community. John now we will open it up for a chance of rebuttals, followups and direct questions. We will start this segment with Lieutenant Governor cooney. Mr. Cooney it is not surprising that talks broke down in washington today, because washington is broken. That is not how you get things done. My opponent has been a part of this problem. He has voted the party line 95 of the time. 95 of the time. That is not working in a bipartisan fashion. I know what its like to work in a bipartisan fashion. That is how we were able to pass Medicaid Expansion by bringing republicans and democrats together. That is how we were able to break the logjam when it comes to infrastructure. Getting imported revenue to cities and communities to handle their water and sewer systems. That is how we were able to balance the budget. Only spending what we bring in. That is bipartisan. Not voting the party line 95 of the time. That just isnt what montanans expect from their leader. They expected governor to be they expected governor to be inclusive. Inclusive. That is what ive always done, thats what im going to continue to do. John congressman gianforte. Mr. Gianforte i think we are talking about jobs here and getting the economy going again. Im a business guy. Im a electrical engineer by training. We started a business in bozeman. It grew to 1100 employees. Our average wage was 90,000. In bozeman. I will tell you, we showed the combined good leadership with the montana work ethic, people can prosper. This is a stark difference between me and mike cooney. Mike cooney got a 0. 0 rating from the Montana Chamber of commerce. Let me just say, that is not easy to do. You cant support a single probusiness initiative, 0. 0. What that means is any particular policy that came forward that might have helped a Small Business, he opposed it. He has has supported over 1 billion in increased taxes for montana. So, who do you you trust to get our economy going . Someone who spent their life creating jobs or a career politician who has a 0. 0 rating from the Montana Chamber . John Lieutenant Governor cooney. Mr. Cooney you know that is hogwash. Mr. Gianforte thats what the record shows. Mr. Cooney on my watch, 46,000 new jobs have found a home in montana. You know, i have always opposed a general sales tax. My opponent has supported a general sales tax. He goes to Congress First of all, he missed more votes than 93 of his colleagues. But when he decides to show up, what does he give the people of montana . He gives the people of montana one of the largest tax breaks that millionaires and billionaires himself can take advantage of. Yet, montanans get a 2 trillion addition to the federal debt. 2 trillion. Im not going to have to worry about that so much. My kids, my new grandson, and perhaps his grandkids will be the ones holding the belt. Holding the bill. In montana, we balance the budget. We make sure we spend no more than we bring in, just like montanans have to do every single month. John final word to congressman gianforte. Mr. Gianforte mike does not have all his facts right. I want to hes made some serious charges. Let me address them. I the vast majority of the votes i missed in congress were because Vice President pence invited me to come to montana. They all occurred in one twoday period. During the 1 15 congress. The 115 congress and hes right. I voted for a package that gave montanans to billion dollars back in taxes. He has consistently supported higher taxes. I will be very clear. In our debate on saturday, he was clear, his plan is to raise your taxes once again and grow government. If you want higher taxes, vote for mike cooney. If you want lower taxes and you want a stronger economy and more good paying jobs, i would humbly ask for your vote. John thank you both. We are going to move on and Start Talking about montanas k12 Education System. Montana is one of seven states that currently do not have Charter Schools. Charter schools receive public tax money, but they dont have to follow the same rules traditional Public Schools do. However the research on charter , schools shows mixed results at this time. If you are elected governor, would you support the creation of Charter Schools in montana . And this questionresponse goes to you congressman. Mr. Gianforte i probably spent more time in k12 education than anything else in my life outside my professional business experience. Let me say, 90 of students in montana go to Public Schools. And we need strong Public Schools, particularly in our Rural Communities. I was in a small town in montana last fall and a young man who teaches high school came to me. He asked to speak to me on the side. And through tears, he told me that he had not had three meals a day for over a year. On mike cooneys watch, montana has the terrible distinction of being dead last in the country in starting teacher pay for our Public School teachers. And my priority in k12 education is not because we are not spending the money. Unfortunately, the money we have allocated is not getting to the classroom. As i meet with Public School superintendents, what im hearing is they are like Small Business people, they are tied in knots with red tape. Weve got to get more money to the classroom. And i will say very clearly, Parental Choice in education does not work in Rural Communities where you dont have the economies of scale, but i trust parents to make the best decision for their kids in our larger communities. And i think more options produce a better result. John thank you. Lieutenant governor cooney. Mr. Cooney let may make it very clear, ive always been a incredible supporter of the montana publics will system. Public school system. I am a product of it. It has treated us incredible he well. Our Education System in montana is truly the engine for our economy. Our kids deserve nothing but the best. If we are going to prepare the workforce for tomorrow, its going to be because of our public our incredible public Education System. You know, my opponent supports taking money away from Public Education and putting it in private education. Let me answer this question specifically. I do not support taking money away from Public Education and putting it into Charter Schools. Private education. We need to continue to invest in our <