The Republican and Democratic nominees for governor squared off this weekend in their own rumble on the river.
Democratic nominee Phil Bredesen and Republican nominee Van Hilleary faced off Sunday in a debate sponsored by News Channel 3, The Commercial Appeal and MPACT Memphis, a group of young professionals who work to develop leaders in the Memphis area.
The debate looked more like a sparring match with each participant taking pointed jabs at the other without landing any real knockout punches.
It was the last scheduled debate between the candidates before the election on Nov. 5, with polls showing a virtual tie between the nominees.
During the hour-long debate, which featured the candidates questioning each other and fielding questions from a panel, both candidates focused on taxes, TennCare, jobs, education and the slumping state economy.
The income tax was still a hot topic even after the state legislature increased the state’s sales tax this summer to end a budget stalemate.
Hilleary, who represents the state’s Fourth Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, repeatedly asked Bredesen to foreswear an income tax.
“Why won’t Mayor Bredesen say it ‘won’t happen on my watch’,” Hilleary, 43, asked the former two-term Nashville mayor. “If I am elected governor (the income tax) will be a dead issue while I am in office.”
Bredesen responded by saying he was not for an income tax but he stopped short of completely disavowing himself of the issue when he said he was a “mature, sensible” person who “won’t box myself into any situation.”
“If you can give me four years in office as a good businessman, we won’t be talking about an income tax,” Bredesen said.
Hilleary, who himself signed an anti-income tax pledge, said the issue was a “black cloud” that hangs over the state.
Bredesen agreed and said with the state’s limping economy it does not matter whether there is an income tax or a sales tax because the state still isn’t taking in enough money. Bredesen said Hilleary’s constant talk on the income tax is a sign that he’s falling behind in the polls.
“Your constant harping on an income tax shows your desperation,” Bredesen said.
There was one item the candidates could agree on - reforming TennCare, the state’s troubled managed care organization.
“It is the platinum package now,” said Bredesen, who became a multi-millionaire operating his own health maintenance organization. “It needs to be the bronze package.”
Hilleary, who in the past has pledged money cut from TennCare to fund, among other things, higher education and pay raises for teachers, said the organization needs a complete overhaul and admitted it would be almost impossible to save money this year.
“I do think we need to restructure TennCare. I think that is where most of the savings can be had,” Hilleary said. “I think we have lost the opportunity to save any money this year. As it is, there are not going to be any savings in TennCare.”
The GOP nominee also said he would audit every department in state government and offer incentives to state employees to cut out waste and mismanagement.
Each candidate expressed ideas about how best to turn around the state’s economy.
Bredesen said the key is attracting more businesses to the state and he highlighted his successes as mayor in bringing Dell computers and professional football and hockey to Nashville.
“I’m proud of the work we accomplished in Nashville,” Bredesen said. “While I was mayor of Nashville we rose personal income to the third highest in the country.”
Hilleary painted the 58-year-old Bredesen as a tax and spend Democrat and said Bredesen may have offered too much in tax breaks to land those major industries in Nashville.
Property taxes in Nashville went up by 32 percent while Bredesen was mayor. The city is still facing debt issues related to the stadium built for the National Football League’s Titans and the arena built for the National Hockey League’s Predators.
“(Bredesen) used the taxpayers of Nashville as an ATM,” Hilleary said. “He managed to raise taxes on the people of Nashville not once, not twice, but three times.”
Hilleary wasted no time comparing the deal Bredesen engineered to bring the Titans to Nashville to the deal city and county leaders orchestrated to bring the Grizzlies to Memphis.
Both men tried to portray themselves as education candidates while attacking the others’ record on the issue.
Bredesen said he favors, with a little tweaking, the lottery measure that will appear on the Nov. 5 ballot.
Hilleary said he would vote against the lottery because it relies too much on the poor and because most of the money for scholarships goes to middle-class families who can afford to pay for school. However, if voters approve the resolution, Hilleary said he would not veto the measure.
In an odd turn for two men running for office, each candidate admitted to making mistakes in the past.
Hilleary admitted being wrong when he said a few years ago that government funds given to the National Civil Rights Museum were a “classic example” of government waste.
Bredesen admitted that a statement he made favoring the legalization of marijuana nearly 30 years ago was a bad mistake.
“It was a silly thing to say then and it’s been silly since then,” Bredesen said.
