Our state. Todays debate broadcast live across the state of oregon between governor John Kitzhaber and representative dennis richardson. Its an example of voips involvement in the process but why bes involvement more than 250 radio and television stations across the state welcome you to todays debate. Watch, listen and you decide. Most importantly, vote. Here is your moderator, matt mcdonnell. Togood morning and welcome this, the 2014 oregon gubernatorial debate. The second time these two candidates will be meeting. Or ehalf of the organization of broadcasting, im tired be your moderator today. John kitzhaber is seeking his fourth term as governor. He was elected in 1994. He was the president of the oregon summit. His republican challenger has served in the oregon house since 2002 representing district four. Hes a retired attorney, Business Owner and a vietnam war veteran. Both of these candidates have agreed to a set form for this debate. Each candidate will have two minutes for opening remarks and three minutes a piece for closing. Questions have been cemented submitted by Oregon Association of broadcasting members. Candidates will have one minute for a response. The candidate that answers first will have a 32nd rebuttal. It will be at my discretion to 30 secondnd followups. At this time, representative richardson, you have two minutes for your opening remarks. Hello. Im dennis richardson. Im the republican and independent candidate for governor. I should start by telling you about who i am. As the son of a carpenter, a union man taught me how to work hard and not quit until the job is done. I learned from the example of president john kennedy when i was young about the importance and the honor of military service. And i was old enough to my joined the army, i flew helicopters in vietnam, nighthawk and single admissions. Single shoot missions. I would meet kathy, who helped life. D new purpose in after 40 years of marriage, we continue to grow closer every year. We have one son and a daughters. Eight daughters. I served on the city council and to become ain 2002 legislator in the oregon house of representatives. While there, i was unanimously elected by the democrats and theblicans to serve as speaker pro tem and then became the cochair of ways and means where i was able to work across aisle to balance the budget in difficult times without raising taxes. Today to ask for you to give me the opportunity to service oregons next governor. This is not about a republican versus democrat. Its about the past versus the future. The governor has served for three terms. Three terms of high unemployed and, low School Achievement and continuing growing this crutch this trust in State Government because of the radical views of our federal and state funds. Oregon deserves a governor who will reboot oregon and restore our economy, our Education System and be able to help restore trust and confidence to the oregon people. Thank you very much. Oab fore thank you sponsoring this debate. My career has revolved around the fact that we all want to be able to meet our basic needs and those of our families and strive to meet our full potential. We want hard work to be rewarded with a better life and we want to leave our kids better off than we were. One is based on the belief that free people are on their own and needed event for themselves. If you make it and youre lucky, great. If you dont, you dont make it. The other belief is based on the assumption that we are actually all in this together. If there are things we can actually do as a community and a society and at the state to lift i all up and im the believe in a second view. As an er doctor and legislator and governor and father iran in 2010 and am running again now. Wherever the dire straits we were in four years ago. Polarized states, hide employment divided the legislature. I saw an opportunity here but we had to throw away the political playbook, reach across partisan divide and take seriously the problems. Thats exactly what we did and weve been doing that together for the last four years. In 2001, we raised that erased that budget deficit. We came into a special dept session to raise revenue for schools and provide smallbusiness relief and we did that with bipartisan votes. Aregotiated here we ahead of us with an open playing field. We did not care the state a part wee we did together did not care the state apart because we did it together. Thank you. We move onto questions now. I always like to follow the things that are happening in the moment. Let me set the stage for this first question. Over the past week, the secretary of state has said they will be finding a story has come out in one of the Media Outlets that the kitzhaber campaign is facing some allegations. High will be was sure oregonians that your administration will operate in an ethical manner . Ive got a pretty wrong political desk the long political career. Pretty long political career. We haveto reported our activities according to the rule and that will all be available on the secretary of states website on september 30. Age, with thed level of media scrutiny that is brought to anyone in public office, we are all pretty transparent. I have a pretty long career of transparency. Im more than happy to discuss that at any time in any place. Are presented richardson. How will you assure oregonians that you are demonstration will operate in an ethical manner . The circuit States Office has challenged this because we are living in portland with a friend and he said we didnt say that on the print. They dont charge rent. Were going to comply with that because we want to comply with the law. But we have seen with the scandal is outrageous. Here is a woman who is working for the governor who was on his staff was giving him counsel and advice about the colonial River Crossing bridge project and at the same time she is getting 554,000 from the primary contractor on the project. I think that is criminal. I think it certainly unethical. Imagine being an advisor to the governor while you are collecting half 1 million from the contractor who you are supposed to be hiring to build a bridge and weve never done a single shovel full of dirt on that bridge. Governor kitzhaber . Think the reason people attacked patricia is she is effective. When she shows up, things happen. She is also a powerful woman. She has been a value add on the crc. A valued friend and consultant over the years. We will continue to secret vice. Advice. Er lawsuits, technical failures. How will you and the cover oregon debacle and ensure the state does not have similar problems on future i. T. Projects . The case study in fraud, waste and abuse. Wasted 300 million on a website project. The governor is going to say that we have signed up all these people under cover oregon for health care. Most of them would have been signed up under medicaid anyway. He will say we provide all this coverage, but in reality, we have cut almost 100,000 individuals who now have to be reenrolled by the federal government. That is a waste of our time, effort and money. We cant let that happen again. The way to avoid it is by being connected. The governor was in boot and learning about while we were in session try to figure out how to implement cover oregon. The way you solve these things is to have a governor who will Pay Attention, be on the job, who will work and shows up. Thank you. You, governor kitzhaber. I will try to answer the question. Our chief Information Officer has instituted a number of steps to address exactly that one. He sat responsibly for each i. T. Project. Problems occur, you dont point fingers after the fact. The second one is whats called the stage a priceless were each stage eight process. We have instituted this throughout the state. With regards to cover oregon specifically, it will deliver a functional website in november. We have only 5 of oregonians who dont have Health InsuranceCoverage Today because we kept our eye on the ball. The remaining functions will be moved to a state agency after november to ensure marketability. More accountability. Its great to keep your eye on the ball. If you keep our eye on medicare afternoon billion dollars wasted on this project. We have to keep our eye on money. 300ve wasted 30 million on this project. Its 390 million on the crc project. 72 million on the most recent department of Human Services baylor. The way you solve this is you have leadership that will Pay Attention and see that we do not have projects that are just starting and then continue without oversight. Recreational marijuana recently became legal in washington and colorado. If pot is legalized here in oregon, do you favor allowing individual communities having the right to ban marijuana related businesses . I think we need a statewide policy. I dont support the ballot measure. Not because i have anything against marijuana. Im concerned we dont know enough and dont have Public Safety and Law Enforcement and educational framework for to work. If colorado and california. It seems to make more sense to wait a couple of years and learn from that experience and put in that kind of framework. Its difficult to do that once the bill is passed. The time to have a thoughtful discussion is before the bill passes. That we aree afforded the opportunity in the state to get ahead of the curve. Its coming. Its inevitable. We can be better prepared to better serve the people of and interest of those who were concerned about it why taking the time to come up with this is possible framework. Legalized here in oregon, do you favor allowing individual communities having the right to ban Recreational Marijuana business . I firmly believe the best government is that which is closest to the people. I see no moving interest by the state to determine whether or not a local community should have pot or not have thought. I think local control is a rational way to approach it. I agree with the governor that we should delay, if we could if wend lamenting could come implementing the law in oregon. We can learn from their mistakes and successes. Once the voters speak, i will take a note to support the will of the people and i wheres i will assure that happens. Because thats pathetic. A governor takes a oath to honor the constitution and the will of the people. While our governor has chosen not to do that when it comes to marijuana enforcement and the limitation of that law, i will see that is done. We found some common ground. A rarity in politics. What would you do differently immediately to improve High School Graduation rates in our state . These be specific. Please be specific. Oregons Education System is second to last in the nation and Graduation Rates. The highest rate of nonattendance. Absenteeism. We cannot afford to lose another generation. We can have promises made, but promises are broken. What i will do is first, we need to winter that education is funded first and not last. Too often, its a political football in the budgeting process. The kids are forced to suffer in School District not have the ability to make their plan. We should Fund Education first. Secondly, we should use common sense and not common core. We dont need to have the federal government and bureaucrats telling us what is best for our schools. We have to have local control wherever possible. We should listen to our teachers , to our parents and to School Districts because they know what is best for our students. We need to make sure that we have common sense in our schools and that our teachers are allowed to teach. Governor kitzhaber what would you do differently to immediately improve High School Graduation rates in our state . We have already started over the last four years. Have viewed kids as nonexistent till they get to kindergarten. We lose a whole lot before they even get their peer we have a laser focus on outcomes for kids. You are four times more likely to graduate if you are reading at your grade level. With reconnect kids in high toool and middle School Colleges and careers and career technical education. Toto give them the ability be pulled through school rather than being pushed through. First funding schools begs the question of what system youre funding. Leaves out the ability to ask whether you are actually funding the social services. Thank you. Representative richardson, you have 30 seconds to respond. What we need to do is focus on the outcomes we have allotted. You can have more of the same. Our students a day mentor and an opportunity, especially with a breakdown in families. We need to look at alternatives. Not all of our kids are going to go to college. Every student deserves an equal educational opportunity. We can do that if we focus on the needs of all of our students and not just the ones heading to college. Thank you. We move onto our next question. In 2015, organs minimum wage will be 9. 25 an hour. In your view, should it be higher or the same and why . Oregon was the first state to institute a minimum wage in 1913. This has been a core value of oregon for over a century. I do believe the minimum wage should be higher. I dont think it should be 15, but i concede at 11 or so. Simply raising the minimum wage by itself doesnt help the problem. There is a benefit clip. Youcome goes up and move from nine dollars an hour to 13 an hour, you have less money in your pocket. Moving up the minimum wage is very important. The people who request social services we should support the minimum wage. So that work actually pays. When you get a minimum wage increase, you actually end up with more money in your pocket. That will be our objective. Giving people the ability to take care of themselves and their families. Richardson . Ative its important to know that oregon is the second highest in the country and its index with inflation, something the other states dont have. Minimum wage is supposed to be an entry wage. We should not be looking at how we are going to be able to raise the minimum wage. But we need are more jobs. That requires us to focus on those barriers that prevent us from having good jobs in oregon. Expand ourus to christmas the product because when there is greater demand for our products and services, that creates more desire for those products and create jobs. Expand our gross domestic product. Just growing the economy doesnt help people at the bottom. We have the second Fastest Growing economy in the nation. Most of those jobs are flat out on the bottom. People trapped in the minimumwage job. No one can live on a minimum wage. A familyke care of for 18,000 year. We will pay people in this state a wage that allows them to take care of themselves. I do want to ask a quick clarification on that question. In 2015,ion was, oregons minimum wage will be 9. 05 an hour and you talked about that in entrylevel wage. Should it be higher or stayed the same . The minimumwage should probably stay with the same program we have now. It is indexed. What we need to do is not focus on men wage. Focus on wages so people can get beyond the minimumwage. S not focus on men wage what we need to do is not focus on minimumwage. In 2013, the Legislature May changes that are currently under judicial review. The potential unfunded liability remains significant. Do you think additional reforms are needed and what specific reforms would you make . Its one of those issues that keeps coming back. We are waiting to see what the Supreme Court does with the most recent reform. Tose reforms, contrary popular belief, did not solve the first problem. Merely lowered the increase. We to determine what is contractual and what is the decision of the legislature. To do that, we need to solve once and for a what is contractual and what is not make the reforms and honor the contract we have to our retirees and are dedicated public servants. . Governor kitzhaber the answer to the question is no. We need to remember these benefits were earned by these people. They were excepted in lieu of pay increases. Because of the market crash and the loss of the fund, the cost of the unfunded liability was taken down to the classroom. I lead our state into a special session and addressed the issue in a fairness possible way. I think maybe strong case to win the Supreme Court. I think we have made a big dent in the unfunded liability. We need to raise the minimum wage and ensure we reduce income inequality. They have done their share and they have taken reductions in the person system and now its time to move on to other issues. We talk about the purse crisis. It continues to be a place where what isnt discussed is the problems that came about during John Kitzhabers term in the legislature. Creating the problem and now we are left to try to solve it. We shouldnt have had it to begin with. We dont need four more years of excuses and blame. What are the fundamental problems with oregons tax structure . What would change . The venerable problem is very narrow Corporate Income taxes. I have favored a consumption tax in the past. If you cant add that third leg, what can we do within this text richer . Tax structure . When people get more money in their paycheck, they get more money in their pockets. At the top and come we know most of our job growth comes from Small Businesses that are rapidly. Ifte when they are big enough, they have liquidity in the the state. We need a targeted Capital Gains tax reduction to keep those resources in the state of oregon. Richardson . Ative one of the fundamental problems with our tax structure is that there is never enough money. With government, you have an addict and the drug of choice is money. We have a cycle of boom and bust. We always spend everything weve got and then when we have the inevitable reduction, the recession, there is never enough money and you end up having to lay off teachers and cut schooldays. When it comes to our tech structure, we have what we have and there