Candidates for governor Republican Mitch Daniels, LibertarianKenn Gividen and Democrat Joe Kernan took part in their first, andpossibly only, debate Tuesday at Franklin College.
Daniels entered the debate with a verbal swing by stating it waswas time for a change in party rule. He said it will take a changein crew to solve the monetary problems now facing Indiana.
One of the major points of argument was education and fundingfor full-day kindergarten, an issue Kernan said is of utmostimportance.
However, higher education was not addressed until the pressconference after the debate. Kernan asked Indiana colleges to captuition increases at four percent and has also asked the same bedone for the 2005-2006 school year.
"The cost of a college education is putting an increasingsqueeze, especially on middle class families all across Indiana,"Kernan said.
Daniels said the best way to make college more affordable is toput more money in people's pockets by keeping jobs in Indiana andto reform how college institutions spend their money.
During the debate, Kernan said one way Indiana can invest in thefuture is by intervening with children's education earlier withfull-day kindergarten.
"A state which is bankrupt cannot pay for [all daykindergarten]," Daniels said. "I support it but Indiana cannotafford it."
His solution to increase the quality of education in Indiana wasto create more charter schools and increase experimentation withdifferent systems.
Kernan said the money is present, and that it's a matter ofre-directing those resources. For every dollar spent now to putkindergartners in school all-day, the state is saving $7 later inwelfare costs and supplemental education, Kernan said.
Because property taxes help fund public schools, the recentreassessment ordered by Kernan also came under speculation. Gividencalled for the elimination of property taxes all together.
"Property taxes are inherently evil ... immoral andwrong,"Gividen said. To make up for the loss in tax money, he wouldeliminate the school board and appoint student parents to take careof the school system.
Kernan proposed a two percent cap on property taxes. Homeownerscould not be required to pay more than two percent of their home'snewly assessed value in property taxes.
Aside from education, the re-importation of prescription drugsfrom Canada was a heated issue.
"[We] shouldn't have to re-import drugs from Canada but I willsupport it because we have people crisis," Kernan said. It doesn'tmake sense for people to go to Canada to buy drugs made in Americacheaper than� American prices, Kernan said. Gividen was onKernan's side but called for a free market for prescriptiondrugs.
"Drug prices are falsely increased by overreaching government[and] overregulation," Gividen said.
Daniels said that Canada doesn't have the supply to meet theAmerican demand for drugs.
The candidates also spoke about the extension of I-69 inSouthern Indiana from Evansville to Indianapolis.
Gividen is opposed to the construction because it will cost $1billion in diverted funds, which is $1 billion that the state couldsave.
Daniels agreed with the construction as long as a toll isimplemented to pay for it. The budget barely has enough money tomaintain the current roads so tolls need to be used or else thereis no money to construct the road, Daniels said.
Kernan gave the initial go ahead to begin planning the extensionand sees no need to make travelers pay a toll.
"Indiana has one toll road and that is one too many" Kernansaid. Reassessing the plan and adding tolls would push the projectback further, which is something Kernan does not want to see.
The candidates expressed gratitude for the opportunity to debatebut aren't sure whether or not a second one will happen. There aretalks of a second debate to take place in October. However, therehas been no agreement among the candidates as to if that willactually happen.
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