Deval Patrick, Charlie Baker and Tim Cahill go at it. Sorry I forgot the perpetual green candidate Jill Steyn

1st question:  Getting people back to work – govt spending or tax cuts?-

Baker: get spending under control – stop taxing – this is what this race is all about.

Cahill:  focus on tax cuts – I believe in supply side economics and we need a gaming bill.  I’ll sign it once elected.  Stimulus is okay around the edges.

Patrick:  It’s clear that we believe in investing in heath care and education and we are 1st in the nation in those things and we are 3rd in job creation.  Get health care costs down.

Steyn:  I take issue with the Governor, we have record unemployment, bankruptcy’s and we need jobs and a real transition, and I want green jobs to create in every community.

Rebuttal:  baker – the best way to grow jobs is to grow the businesses who make jobs and give them some certainty

cahill:  health care is what is keeping business from hiring

patrick:  CNBC says we are 5th best place to do business, and there are lots of decisions and we have done it well.  He names some companies that he says are doing well.  We have to improve the business climate and health care costs and it is your fault Baker

Baker:  8 tax increases in the last 4 years and you never cared about health care until this year.

Patrick:  Health care costs are the biggest concern of the commonwealth and you are at fault because you raised premiums 150% when you were at harvard Pilgrim.

Baker:  the problem is the state rules.

Steyn:  problem is the needless bureaucracy, we should have a single payer improved medicare for all.

Cahill:  We need solutions and not blame each other.

Steyn again calls for a single payer system.

Cahill:  Medicaid costs have gone up $4 b since Romneycare.

Steyn:  get rid of insurers put everyone in medicare.

Baker:  That won’t work and medicare grows 10-12%

Patrick:  people need help right now, so we capped the premiums.  I’m proud of our healthcare systems.

Steyn:  Unsustainable”

State has a $2b deficit, can you cut spending by that much or more taxes

Cahill;  I’m not prepared to raise taxes, we have to cut spending, we have to cut transportation costs and healthcare.  (No mention of pensions)

Patrick:  We will look at further cuts, we had concessions from unions, and the solution is to grow the economy which is to invest in education and something else.

Steyn:  We can cut waste, and savings.  Cut sweetheart deals, look at Patricks 200m for developers on office parks, tax incentives do not work.

Baker:  I won’t raise taxes and I think we should get rid of Pacheco law, reduce state’s work force and fix the pension system.  The administration model is bad, and reform medicine and construction.

Patrick: unions have conceded so I cut deals with them.  I have different values than Charlie.  We raised the alcohol tax to pay for addicts, and we closed corporate loopholes.

Baker,  I have more proposals to cut spending than you do.  And your taxes hurt small business not to mention fines and regulation,.

patrick:  it’s a lot more complicated than what you said.  I talked to someone who said cut my taxes and then I talked her out of it.

Cahill:  We’ve been balancing the budget with federal stimulus money, and you have to learn to say no.  We can spend more wisely.

Steyn:  50% of the state budget goes to healthcare.  We need to create an infrastructure for health with green jobs.  (I kid you not)

Baker says that he complete disputes that nothing is left to cut.

Patrick says we have already done a great job at combining jobs.

Patrick says to Baker:  You have never even swung at the ball.

Steyn says that we should stop the bickering.

Time for a break.

Next Question:  you are all on record of expressing concern of the roll back on taxes to 3%.  Does it send a message.

Patrick:  it would be a calamity – he goes back to the conversation about tax cuts, (he has also said he won’t enact the law)  We are making choices on our values:  education, health care.

Steyn:  Voters should elect someone who is not a party of Beacon Hill business as usual.  Question 3 would be a problem because it will take 2.3b out of the budget, so we need to stick it to the rich.  Middle class pays half as much.

baker – 5 – 5 – 5 all taxes should be 5%.  we have a 2.5b deficit already, and if Governor Patrick hadn’t made such bad choices then we could have done it.

Cahill: people  are sending a message – voters always have to step in and make the tax cuts  We have to start listening to people.  We passed Obamacare when n o one wanted it.

Steyn:  If you cut the sales tax you have to make it up elsewhere.  You can’t let the bottom fall out of our communities, and you should soak the rich.

Baker:  there are 2 sets of rules, people have to cut back but the government doesn’t.  pension system needs to be reformed, you don’t give people flexibility

Patrick:  We have cut spending , the budget has increased at half the rate when you were working on it (Romney)  There are things we are supposed to do to keep families together,  It doesn’t mean you are evil Charlie

Cahill:  we need to grow jobs, make it more affordable.  people would prefer to vote on their own taxes, not have Beacon Hill do it for them.  The people are not stupid.

Baker, you endorsed Patrick when he went against the people when they wanted to cut taxes, so why the change now.

Cahill:  I thought it made more sense to do it that way then, and have changed my mind.

Patrick:  you must give towns a way to raise money and we have brought costs down a lot.  More must be done.

Baker, if I win I will campaign on letting cities make their own rules and it us an outrage that hasn’t been done.

Steyn:  teachers, firefighters premiums will go up.  We should cut sweetheart deals.  We pay raytheon 300m for jobs they never created.

Cahill:  if Quincy can do it, everyone can do it.

Q:  Patronage in the state work force – will you hire political supporters or how will you stamp out the practice.

Steyn:  people should be hired according to their abilities and the patronage is bad – and this raises the broader issue of ethics.  Scandal under the noses of the ethics committee, beacon hill not working

Baker:  Lots of stories, and the probation department doing that was an open secret, but the state has done very little .  Everyone knew it was a problem

Cahill:  Put probation in the judiciary, and I will hire people who worked in my campaign as long as qualified

Patrick:  Tim is right, and I thank the viewer for the question and I filed an overhaul before the story in the Globe, a lot of really good people in the probation dept and the ability to get transparency is a problem .   I am proud of my ethics reform which did not solve the problem.

Steyn:  If it didn’t fix the obvious problem, what will it fix?  The system is rotten – brings up the big dig

Baker:  Balance on Beacon Hill will help – when it is all one party ethics are hard to enforce.

Cahill, republcan governorship didn’t help,  we need a new direction – get new people and look at it independently.

patrick – probabation issues went back to republicans – so you make independent decision and that is why the police are demonstarting

Baker: governor you called patronage ‘the cost of doing business’ when that story broke.

Patrick: The big did has been the problem forever and that is your fault.

Baker:  it was started under Dukakis, and I worked on one piece and you used that piece.

Cahill:  if you took the approach we took for schools you would not have this problem.  I worked with republicans when I was a democrat.

Patrick:  tim did well in the school program and you deserve some of the credit.  the big dig is still a drag, and you wrote the financing bill.

Baker:  How much has the commonwealth spent on spending for roads – 13b- every administration has spent more.  The notion that you can blame all your problems on the Big dig, you need to man up and take responsibility .

Patrick:  Your company got state aid:

Baker:  what state aid?

Cahill. we can’t solve problems with bickering.

Steyn, politicians need to take responsibilty, the big dig was corrupt – Weld and Cellucci, and that money should go to teachers and firefighters.

Patrick:  We condition investment on job creation

Steyn:  they don’t pay

Q:  And Zeituni is living in Boston housing when she is here illegally and 20k people waiting .

Baker:   People feel like they get played for chumps and they had to pay for people who will never pay taxes

Cahill:  it’s wrong for illegals to get benefits

Patrick:  The Perry amendment would not have worked,  We have rules and we enforce them – we can only have federal rules and not state rules

Steyn:  It has to be solved at the federal level and illegals tripled after Nafta and it has to be fixed there.  We should not go after little guys.  Illegals did not create this problem, wall street did.

Cahill:  We can’t wait for Washington to fix this for us.  We need to use everify

Baker:  When Tim was the treasurer he supported the governor when he supported instate tuition for illegals.\

patrick:  the police are too busy – we check status (not true)

Steyn; you can’t segregate illegals

Cahill:  you need a class

End.