Debate commission. Hello and welcome to the first of two debates in the independent nonpartisan Debate Commission. Coming to you live in indianapolis. We will be hearing from the candidates on the ballot who want to be your governor. They are incumbent republican eric candidates thank you for joining us into giving an and gn opportunity to hear from you. The director for the indiana politics at Purdue University and a member of the Debate Commission i will be moderating. Like so many things weve had to make a few modifications to the debate because of the coronavirus. The candidates and i are in the building but we are in separate spaces so we are holding a virtual debate. People from around the state submitted hundreds of questions covering more than 90 topics. The questions for tonight reflect some of the topics covered most frequently none of the questions or topics have been shared in advance with any candidate. We will be giving one minute to make an Opening Statement and after that, questions will be asked of all three candidates. Each will have one minute to respond. Candidates may request an opportunity for a rebuttal. The order for answering questions will rotate. If a candidate exceeds the time limit the rules state that i shall interrupt and remind everyone of the agreedupon time limits. The order in which the candidates will answer the questions was determined by a drawing conducted by the commission and now for the Opening Statements. We will be hearing from woody myers first. You have one minute. Good evening. Together with the representative i am prepared to lead the state in a new direction. Im prepared to do all that we can do to get us through this Global Pandemic. We are in the midst of a recession as well. In this recession we havent had the leadership required from our current governor. He hasnt taken the steps needed. If you elect me. She has been and will continue to be an outstanding leader for the state. Thank you doctor myers. Next we will hear from governor eric holcomb. You have one minute. Good evening and thank you andrew and the indiana Debate Commission for making all of the adjustments necessary to make sure the show would go on and we could have this after dinner conversation. I also want to thank every hoosier washing tonight and even those that are not watching because it is they who help us create such positive Forward Momentum over the last four years. We created momentum and job creation and alltime high wages to the Economic Development corporation, capital investment. We made sure infant mortality rates were finally going down and adoptions going up. We made historic investments in the k12 education space and in our infrastructure space. But suzanne and i feel like we are just Getting Started after four years of Forward Momentum, and im excited and anxious to talk about that vision going forward. Thank you governor. Next we will hear from mr. Rainwater. Good evening. In this present crisis, government isnt the solution to the problem. The government is the problem. Forty years ago, president Ronald Reagan spoke those words. Every day in indiana the hoosiers realize that they are just as relevant today as they were when he spoke them. We have crisis in indiana. We have a health crisis, we have an education crisis, we have an economic crisis but most of all, we have a crisis of government. We have a government that wants to tell us what to do and not give the information we need to make the choices in our lives. We live in a Constitutional Republic where we should tell government what we want and not the other way around. Thank you. Education is one of the most popular topics and it wont surprise anyone the questions dealt with teacher pay. Im a teacher of ten years and i look forward to the day i get to send my twin boys to the Public Schools in my city. However i continue to work and teach in kentucky because of the pay benefits in retirement, and i am not alone. What can each candidate do to encourage those like myself and so many others to come to work in our communities and better support those that already teach here. We will hear from doctor myers first. We can listen to those who told us now for many years the pay is substandard. Weve known for over 15 years indiana teacher pay is well below that of other states and we havent done anything close to what is required to get back to where we were. Indiana can raise teachers salaries by prioritizing education in the next budget and i will do so as your next governor. Its clear to me unless we do that we will continue to lose teachers to kentucky, illinois, ohio and the profession altogether. We can stop wasting your money as well on entities like the indiana Virtual Schools where approximately 70 million was wasted because no one was paying attention to the expenditures and now theres a criminal investigation underway. We could do so much better for the teachers in the state. A. Next we will hear from governor holcomb. You have one minute. I appreciate the question. We are hard at work on this. Indiana prioritizes our Public School education. We allocate over 50 of our total revenue, our budget to education. Now that doesnt mean that we are there yet. The good news is we have already increased the funding 1. 6 billion. We paid off the local liabilities to the tune of 150 million so that money can get to the teacher pay checks. We worked with School Superintendents and principals. Finally you have one minute. Thank you. So, first of all, we need to realize that one of the problems that we have here in indiana is that we have over politicized education and we are spending way too much time talking about how big the government can provide education and pay teachers. What we really need to do is get our Education System decentralized and get control back to the parents, teachers and the classrooms, the local School Boards and School Districts in the bureaucracy here at the statehouse that will be the first step to getting teacher pay of where it should be and getting education back into the classroom where it belongs instead of a Political Tool used by Big Government. Thank you. Doctor myers has requested a rebuttal. Remember they are 30 seconds. Weve starved teachers over 15 years in indiana and now in the last session we gave them a 2. 7 raise while the charters and vouchers programs got 25 . Its like giving a sandwich to a starving person after 15 years it tastes good but it certainly doesnt do the job and get us back to where we need to be. Our second question of course deals with funding in general and k12 education has spread across traditional Public Schools, charter schools, Online Options and vouchers. What do you think is the appropriate distribution of funds for the education in indiana. This time we will hear from governor holcomb first. As i mentioned at the outset, the number one priority is to make sure that we are adequately and appropriately funding our Public School system. We are doing that and we need to do more in terms of teacher pay. Also every budget session we deal with the foundational dollars where we start to complexity index. We on our diploma honor diplomae funding et cetera. That is what will occur in january as we go forward. We made historic progress, but i am so excited about continuing to make sure parents have the option to best determine where their student goes. Charter schools mostly in indiana are public charter schools. That is a special note meaning parents get to decide. After all they are paying the taxes and we need to make sure the Revenue Sources are intact. Thank you, governor. Let me say what we need to do in indiana is make sure when money is allocated for the education of the child, that money follows the child. It doesnt matter what Educational Opportunity whether its Public School, private school, charter schools, online schools or any innovations in education in the future we need to understand and remember again this isnt about whos funding what and where. Its about getting a child educated. Every child is unique and they need unique Educational Opportunities and we need to make sure that its funded for them as long as the state constitution says we are providing common schools. Last but not least, one minute. Back in 2005, 2006 we had a funding formula that worked, but we changed it and we changed it to punish the urban schools, the schools that were in the big cities and weve allowed that deficit funding for the differences over the last 15 years the dollars required we are not putting enough money into the system. For the 2020 education program. Governor holcomb has requested a rebuttal. Thirty seconds. I think its important to note we did in fact cap the property taxes that did adjust the allocation of dollars. We did that to provide certainty because people were being priced out of their homes. Weve continued to increase the k12 funding and we have worked recently again 1. 6 billion a sense 2017 and even protected 100 of the funding in the year like this one. We will continue to honor her commitment to the School System as we go forward. Theres no such thing as state money or public money. That is tax dollars that the hoosiers have been paying and they are supposed to come to the education of a child not the School System but educating a child, and we need to get back to that. We are going to turn to the pandemic next. Voters across the spe moderator voters across thet political spectrum some questions about this. The first from a voter in lebanon. Which is of greater importance, mass Public Safety or individual rights and freedoms . We start with mister rainwater on this one. Rainwater the reality is only you can determine what risk you are willing to take and what are the appropriate measures you need to take for yourself, your family, your business, your church or any other situation you might find yourself in . The reality is there is no 1sizefitsall solution to anything and there is no if you do this you will be protected because this is a virus. You can only do what is easiest and best for you to protect for your self. The reality is the one thing we do know is the constitution is there to protect our individual liberties and make those choices for ourselves. Woody myers has one minute. Myers governments job is to lead and Public Safety will always be first. We do need a real mask mandate in indiana with consequences for the small percentage of hoosiers who choose not to protect themselves or protect others. It is similar to what we did years ago when we told people that you couldnt light a cigarette anywhere you wanted to light it up. You had to go into an area where it wasnt going to hurt other people. It is similar to putting your kids in a car seat. Very important to protect their safety and the safety of others. A mask mandate will be issued on day one. Moderator last for this question, eric holcomb. Holcomb if we all lived alone you could answer the question independently but we dont live alone. We live with one another and that is how we will get through this. Our individual liberty needs to be guarded. When that liberty or those actions infringe on someone else that is where we take a look at the Public Safety. Just like a seatbelt, just like wearing shoes in a restaurant, just like fire codes, they are meant for safety procedures. We are in an emergency, Public Health emergency. We do have a state mandated mask requirement. It is a strong statement that says this works, we are seeing cases arise, we are seeing deaths rise, and we know how it spreads. Wearing a mask, physically distancing, good hygiene, will help us slow that spread. Moderator thank you. Mister rainwater, you requested rebuttal. 30 seconds. Rainwater this is the difference between Big Government and limited government. Nowhere in the constitution does it say your individual rights are suspended during a crisis or a pandemic. It also needs to be pointed out that unfortunately while we are told they have looked at the science, they havent shown us the science that definitively proves that a mask mandate makes anything any safer. Moderator you requested a rebuttal. Myers we wouldnt have record numbers. Almost every day in the last couple weeks we have more cases of coronavirus than a few days before. Our Positivity Rate is going up. We do not have a mask mandate in indiana, we have a mask suggestion. A mandate has consequences. There are mandates in other states that surround us, we need when in indiana and as your governor i will put one in place. Moderator eric holcomb asked for a rebuttal. Holcomb our representatives and state senators years back saw fit to address this very scenario, a Public Health emergency scenario and made sure that the governor could in fact pass a mask mandate. I am appreciative of our federal partnership with the administration who through the cdc and others provide guidance how to get through this and continue to make sure we correctly balance lives and livelihoods. Moderator our fourth question now, with this will be about taxes. The topic comes up frequently. One libertarian voter wrote taxes are necessary to fund a civil republic. Regardless how necessary we think they are they get discussed in terms of winners and losers. A person from kokomo asks can you outline your plan for tax revenue, individual income tax as well as other sources, but include who you think benefits the most and who does not under your plan . You have one minute. Myers corporations in indiana have benefited the most because their tax rates have been going down where individual income taxes have remained the same. Weve got to have tax revenue in indiana to do the things required. As your governor, we will take a careful look at the various Revenue Sources, prioritize the expenditures that give us the most opportunity to improve Public Safety and make sure we are efficient in how we manage the government so we dont waste tax dollars as has been often done in the past 15 years. As your next governor that will be my priority. Moderator thank you, eric holcomb has one minute. Holcomb that is the beauty of our system. Every year we come to the General Assembly, your elected state representatives and state senators and the governor have this discussion about where dollars will be allocated usually during the upcoming session in january. Our Corporate Income tax is going down to 4. 9 . Our individual income tax, 3. 2 . The Tax Foundation has ranked indiana in the top 10 in terms of tax environment in the nation. What we seek to do is make sure indiana remains a great state for businesses, for individuals to invest in so we grow. That is where our Program Policies pay offer hoosiers, the low cost of doing business and low cost of living state plus progrowth policies on the business side equal getting ahead. Moderator last on this question, mister rainwater. Rainwater before we talk about taxes we need to talk about spending and we need to realize our State Government wastes millions if not billions of dollars a year on old processes, old systems and plain old fraud, waste and abuse which Everybody Knows it, they just dont want to talk about it. What we have to do is reduce the size and scope of our State Government, get Government Back within its means, understand that then once we have reduced cost of government we can start doing things like eliminating the individual income tax in the state of indiana and nine other states have done it. We need to do it. We can illuminate the personal property tax on your primary residence so the government can never take your home because you are on fixed income and cant afford to pay property taxes. Moderator woody myers, you requested rebuttal, 30 seconds. Myers the governor could have taken action this past summer to call a special session to keep the Corporate Tax in indiana 5. 5 . Instead it will go down as he suggested to 4. 9 while hoosiers income is suffering. That doesnt make sense especially in a time of a Global Pandemic when we have a recession underway and we have hoosiers who are hurting every single day. Moderator eric holcomb requested rebuttal. Holcomb i put a shout out to the best cabinet in america. To these folks are doing incredible work, they could be doing other things in life, extremely talented. We have modernized so many systems and State Governments over the years, department of revenue, the part of Workforce Development, things that are touching citizens every day to make sure we are more efficient. Weve been ranked the number one efficient state in america. Years ago when one of my predecessors came into office we were 27,000 employees, with we have cut to the bone. Moderator we will move to our fifth question, many seniors pay their mortgages off but are still paying property taxes. They face tax liens and foreclosures because of rising prices, cant make property taxes on fixed income possible when they are making other expenditures. Of voter from kokomo has this question was will you eliminate yearly property taxes for seniors with combined income under 150, 000. You have one minute. Holcomb years ago under the Daniels Administration as i mentioned earlier, we permanently in the constitution capped property taxes for this very reason. We did it one 23 for individuals, capped it at one for farms and property, 2 for businesses, 3 for this very reason and most recently for veterans made sure we exempted their pensions from state income tax for this very reason. Over the years we cut taxes 19 times. Property taxes, income taxes, corporate and individual. The question remains how do you replace the revenue if you illuminate taxes or Public Safety, school funding, are you going to eliminate parks . Medicaid recipients etc. It is easy to talk about doing away with something but you need a plan to replace it or citizens will suffer. Moderator we moved to mister rainwater next. Rainwater perhaps eric holcomb has forgotten the one is on your assessed value and they can reassess your property every year which means your taxes still go up and seniors are suffering because of that. I realize that. One of the things i suggested as a possible alternative to personal property tax on your primary residence is converting that to a 7 sales tax due at the time of closing on your property. That would be a plan that would actually get people out of Asset Forfeiture and provide some funding under property tax dollars to the programs that need to be funded. Moreover i think it is important we realize hoosiers need their money before the state needs it and theres plenty of things that can because as far as corporate welfare that have nothing to do with basic services. Moderator last on this question, woody myers. Myers there are suit hoosiers especially seniors who are suffering who cant make their tax bills. I hope the federal government will come to its senses and provide additional relief as part of this effort to make state and local governments whole as part of this pandemic response. In the interim we can become more efficient. We can reduce the number of entities the state manages, becoming far more efficient. Of elected your governor i will go through the state budget with a fine tooth comb, with the butted agency and we are going to find all those programs that may have been a good idea 10 years ago but today dont make sense during a Global Pandemic, Public Health emergency. We will push the pause button, we will push the stop button so we get the money that we need in order to provide Public Safety, provide for the needs of people because in my campaign our motto is people over politics. Moderator eric holcomb requested rebuttal. Holcomb a quick note to point out that us news and world report ranked indiana the number one state in the country in terms of efficiency and transparency so the good news is we have been at this rooting out and ringing out fraud, waste and abuse going on 15 years, 16 years and we will never stop. That is why we do modernize our systems to make it more customer friendly free sensual services the government is required to deliver. Moderator you requested rebuttal. Rainwater i want to remind all the better watching this evening that it doesnt matter what u. S. News world report or anybody else ranks indiana in any category. What matters is how you feel about how your life is been, either better or worse over the last four years. It doesnt matter who has endorsed a candidate. It matters what you think and how you feel and how your life is better or worse today. Moderator you requested rebuttal. Myers i point out to all hoosiers who have been on hold for days and hours to try to get information about their Unemployment Benefits that the modernization my opponent talked about hasnt reached the indian is a part of Workforce Development because anyone and everyone at the agency will tell you things are not working the way they need to for hoosiers. Customer service there has been abysmal. Even adding folks to the roles we are not where we need to be. Moderator we will on to our 6 question, tie together Economic Development in the environment. A number of people who submitted questions it. There were several questions about sustainable products which critics allege poses significant environmental threat. How your administration balance Economic Development with protecting the environment and health of hoosiers . Mister rainwater, you have one minute. Rainwater first of all let me say nowhere in the state constitution does it give the governor the title of economic developer in chief. The reality is it is not governments responsibility or job to create economic develop and or create jobs. Governments job is to protect your individual rights in person and in property which means government must make certain we have minimal regulations that protect peoples Property Rights from pollution, from unnecessary use of Eminent Domain and ensure people understand that government will make sure that we put people in front of corporations. Moderator you are next, one minute. Myers the question with respect to the wf t plan, i looked at the data that is available today with respect to that and come out against it, there is not enough Safety Information to give me confidence that we need in order to create such a major factory that could put toxins in the atmosphere that could hurt people. There has been public input into the process so far so unless the information gets a lot better than i have seen so far the plan is put on hold. Moderator last on this question, eric holcomb. Holcomb the governor of indiana chairs the indian Economic DevelopmentCorporation Board designed to work with the privatesector to encourage investment in the state of indiana. We also work with our partners at the Indiana Department of Environmental Management to make sure there is a process underway and public input periods so all viewpoints are considered and we make determinations based on fact. It is working even during a Global Pandemic the new jobs that have come through the Indian Economic develop incorporation are about 26,000 this year. In 2016 we did just over 20,000, the trick is how to fill those jobs and the other 109,000 that are unfilled right now. That is where our Workforce Development programs come in. Doctor myers requested rebuttal. Myers the question about the wf t plan, i have not heard my opponent address this specific issue with respect to the department of Environmental Management their Staffing Levels have gone down. They havent been adequately funded for a long time. That is going to change. We will have the Environmental Team we need to make sure the environment and indiana is safe. Moderator us for a rebuttal. Rainwater the governor talks about all these new jobs they are going to bring in and then he talks, recently he said 118,000 highpaying technical jobs hoosiers cant fill because they havent been trained up for that. He is responsible for education indiana. Secondly as these jobs are not fillable by hoosiers what good do that due to the almost 1 million hoosiers who had to file for unemployment since march 1st. Moderator eric holcomb requested rebuttal. Holcomb we are going to stay making sure everyone who has been displaced a lot of job during this pandemic gets one as well. The good news, we had a 3. 22 Unemployment Rate in february, january this year, we rocketed up to 17. 5 and we were down 6. 2. We are going back to work in the private sector, our environment is cleaner than it has ever been since the 1970s in the clean air and water act. Moderator we will stick with the environment for the next question, the previous question focus on future development. What is your plan for cleanup of environmentally hazardous sites. How would you prioritize that activity. We start with doctor myers, one minute. Myers we will staff the department of Environmental Management and work closely with the department of Natural Resources to make sure we prioritize the safety of hoosiers around the state. Water and air have problems in indiana. We have overflow putting nitrates in the water supply that has gone unabated, we have committed difficulty in terms of air pollution primarily from plants that remain in the cold burning mold. We know we can do a better job, and we are going to prioritize renewable energy, clean energy to make our estate safer than it is today. Moderator one minute. Holcomb i want to express how proud i am of employees at the department of Environmental Management. We dont judge our effectiveness by the number of employees, we measure what we do and working with local communities and businesses to make sure they are following the law, that we continue to clean up the environment whether it is abandoned property, this is a huge asset for us and potential opportunity to develop, we are doing this every single day. I stress air and water cleaner than it has ever been. Air and water, 97 persons, and finance authority helps with over 1 billion local communities continue to improve cleanliness of their systems. We are hard at work at this every day. Moderator you have one minute. Remdesafir rainwater we need to realize the best way to clean up the aggression of polluters is to make them pay to clean it up, hold them accountable. Hold them responsible to make sure the restitution they pay is so large, they dont want to pollute. If we do that, we dont have to have the citizens of the state of indiana paid to clean up somebody elses that acts. Thank you. Moderator people brought up guns, increases in gun violence especially among young people and the rights of gun owners. Retired speech therapist wrote the state of indiana is suffering an epidemic of gun violence. Of governor beyond enforcing the gun laws already on the books what would you promote to decrease the incidence of injury and death by firearms and we will hear from eric holcomb on this. Holcomb im concerned, every hoosier, violence in general. As we see it rise in certain areas, Indiana State Police partner with local communities and continue to do that and make sure we protect our red flag law that makes sure folks were dangerous to themselves and others are identified and those weapons are removed with Law Enforcement and the courts involvement, those who are seeking to hurt others. We will continue with community fleecing efforts from estate perspective to work on the grounds with our partners in local communities throughout indiana. Moderator mister rainwater, you have one minute. Rainwater i dont believe red flag laws are appropriate because they violate the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment. I also dont believe the problem is guns. People are violent because there is evil in the world. You cant legislate that. What you can do is try to create an environment where people understand that if they do something as an act of aggression against someone else they will pay a severe penalty for that aggression. We also need to understand a lot of the violence we see especially in our urban areas is the result of hopelessness and poverty and we need to address that and realize we need to give people an opportunity to have Economic Opportunities instead of giving them nothing but a lot of Big Government bureaucratic talk. Moderator woody myers, your last on this question. Myers i spent a great deal of time in the emergency room and the icu taking care of victims of gunshot wounds. I know how tragic they can be. I see what happens when a parent or someone leaves a gun around and a child picks it up and uses it on a fellow child or even on a parent. I know what it is like to tell a parent one of their loved ones has committed suicide using a firearm. I know we can do a better job on gun safety and indiana and nationwide and i will fight for that as your governor. I am the only candidate that was made the gun sends candidate by moms demand action, a group that nationwide is fighting to make sure we have better gun laws across the nation. I will be in washington dc testifying and working in indiana to improve gun laws and make the state a lot safer than it is today. We are going to stick with guns. You respect the right for people to care constitutional carry. Whether you do or not. Why do you think this is not going to help was given republicans control the General Assembly and the Governors Office for the last several years. This question will be starting with mister rainwater, you have one minute. Rainwater i absolutely support constitutional carry in indiana. And in 2021. They are very crucial. We can protect our other rights. And and we understand that some issues have been used to keep voters on the hook from election to election. And to win votes. Next is doctor myers. The Second Amendment will survive just fine without more individuals carrying more weapons around brandishing them and scaring many members of the public. I dont supported. I support increased background checks to make sure, to purchase a weapon, and support closing the loophole for gun shows that allow private sales to occur background checks taking place. Guns kill people in order for us to get our arms better around this problem weve got to change what we are doing today. If we keep doing what we are doing we will keep the same results. Moderator you have the last answer on this question, one minute. Holcomb for years and years the General Assembly as long as i can remember going back cherished our Second Amendment and will continue to. What we have to make sure of his we dont and string our Law Enforcement officials when they could prevent a tragic circumstance and we know those occur. It is just reality. We have made it easy, in fact free, to obtain a 5year gun permit in indiana. That is not a cost consideration for those who want to own a gun for protection are hunting etc. We will cherish the Second Amendment and i dont want to do anything that would put Law Enforcement in a more dangerous situation. Moderator you requested rebuttal of 30 seconds. Rainwater first of all ive spoken to several Law Enforcement officers, grandfather was one, my father was one in his 20s and they are all trained to expect that everyone, everyone that they encounter is carrying a firearm. Concealed carry and open carry, neither one is brandishing. Brandishing is against the law, we know this and there is no reason to create fear for people where there is none. Moderator your question rebuttal, eric holcomb. Holcomb i agree Law Enforcement is trained when they confront. Im talking before the fact, not after. Moderator that was very brief. Next question to the issue of Public Health and more specifically the governors powers. Several people when reflecting on the way the state handle the Public Health crisis believe the governor had sweeping powers and indianas political system was out of balance. Political scientists deck out indians governor ranks as a moderate position in the amount of power compared to other governors. We received questions asking about the powers of government. It has been 7 months since a Health Emergency was declared. Under what circumstances should special session of the General Assembly be called, should one have been called by now and we start with woody myers. Myers we should have had a special session at the beginning of the pandemic and i called for one back when the pandemic began. The governor has powers that he or she can use to protect the public in indiana law today and you can challenge those powers in the court but the first thing to do is to protect the Public Safety. I believe the court battle is for later. Lets do what we can do right now to protect our citizens from this virus until we have a safe and effective vaccine and that is going to be a little bit longer. Im going to wait until a Biden Harris Administration appoints a new director of the cdc and fda and that will be very soon in order to hear from them about the vaccines being evaluated and when they are approved i will make sure they are distributed effectively and safely through the state of indiana and then we consider relaxing the requirements i will put in place immediately. Moderator eric holcomb, you have one minute. Holcomb the constitutional question is not a question at all. It has been floated and friends etc. But it passes constitutional muster. The governor has the authority, it was granted to the governor of indiana by the General Assembly. I look forward to sitting down with members of the General Assembly come january if i return and addressing any concerns or they may have. I was in constant communication despite what has been alluded to throughout the last eight months and we soon will learn how they in fact will meet eight months into this come january and i look forward to accommodating their wishes and entertaining their thoughts on how we can improve this. This is an extraordinary time and we had to take extraordinary measures all constitutional. Moderator you have one minute. Rainwater members of the generalissimo your human beings, they dont have infinite wisdom. In my opinion the extension of powers to the governor has been a mistake and when i am elected and inaugurated the first thing i will do is go to the General Assembly and ask them to take away these extra powers that would allow a governor to spend 7 or 8 months without the special session of the General Assembly and unilaterally legislating to the people of indiana and i would call on both the other candidates to tell us whether they are willing to do the same thing because i dont believe the governor is a legislator. The governor is supposed to execute the laws that are passed by the General Assembly. Moderator im sorry, woody myers. Myers the governor has the power today to lead, to say that we are going to have a mask mandate, there will be consequences and we will protect hoosiers. I will make that point very clear to a General Assembly that is tucked away in their offices or at home in order to protect themselves and their staff because in january when the legislature comes into session we will not be out of the woods with respect to the pandemic. Moderator one of the challenges of being spread around the building is it is hard to know who has requested rebuttals and i apologize. Eric holcomb, are you asking for rebuttal . Holcomb please. I am surrounded by doctors all day long. I will sit down with members of the General Assembly should i return in january and address there are 150 legislators and every single ones opinion and approach matters so we will address this and a lot of other issues, not hypothetical but as they come come january. Moderator our next to the last question given how long the answers have been running, this when i will take the liberties and mash together a couple questions, one from an ironworker and room from a data analyst. Some businesses in the state are struggling. How will you help them reopen and how will you help Small Businesses in general grow . We start with eric holcomb. Holcomb this is a strength for indiana. I dont want to overlook the struggling businesses out there due to rainwater covid19. Holcomb it is devoted to Small Businesses all over indiana. We took 200 million and make sure we created a ppe marketplace so businesses could reopen safely. 9 billion came from the federal government in the ppp program, 83,000 forgivable loans many of which took part of. What we dont want to do is give up our high ground. We were ranked number one in terms of smallbusiness friendliness and entrepreneurship in the midwest and topranked in the country. We have the ecosystem to grow. We want to make sure we are continuing to build a bridge to the other side of covid19. Moderator mister rainwater next. Rainwater covid19 didnt close any Small Businesses. Executive orders did. Unfortunately executive orders said some Small Businesses were essential and some were not. Some businesses provide the necessities of life and some dont. Unfortunately every hoosier is essential in every Small Business, every business of every size provides necessities of life to the people who depend on it for their living so they can pay their bills and feed their kids and make sure they pay their mortgage. Unfortunately that didnt matter for the last 10 months. What we have to do is reinvigorate Small Business by giving them their money back and letting them invest their money instead of inspecting government to take money and do what they want with it. Moderator woody myers, you have one minute. Myers covid19 has devastated a number of Small Businesses, no doubt about that whatsoever. As governor i will do absolutely everything to reenergize Small Business leadership in indiana by helping those with the entrepreneurial spirit cut the government red tape and get businesses started. With the help of smallbusiness navigators especially the veteran owned businesses and women minority owned businesses, such a hard time moving forward in our state. I will change that in my administration with Lieutenant Governor lawson. We will get ppe at a good price and make it available to everyone in the state. Unlike the response we had early on, we could have gotten a lot cheaper but we didnt and that is the change as well. We will do the things that will help our state to be efficient and effective with respect to all businesses especially Small Businesses which are the engine of growth for any state including indiana. Moderator if you would please, 30 seconds. Holcomb i will be brief. If you rewind and go back to late march we basically did have 200 down, shut down some of indiana so we didnt overwhelm our Healthcare System because of the fact that every hoosier is essential. We did that and we were very methodical. That was the month of april. We never shutdown the state of indiana. Some businesses have suffered because of covid19 to this day. Moderator our final question, everyone will have 30, 35 seconds to answer. This question comes from a libertarian in browns berg. What is the fundamental role of government and if elected how do you plan to fulfill that role . First we hear from eric holcomb. Holcomb we are, as governor charged with overseeing all the agencies that interact with citizens on an hourly minute by minute basis and the state of indiana has enjoyed certainty and predictability in terms of not just hope for the future but growth. We see that when it comes to our economy and our families and our communities. We will focus on just that. Moderator mister rainwater, you have 30 seconds. Rainwater in the declaration of independence Thomas Jefferson said that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men. He didnt say to do Economic Development or to protect you from your self or to protect you from a virus, he said to secure these rights and i believe it is governments responsibility to secure your individual rights and not infringe on them and use a crisis as an excuse. That is to me the function of government. Moderator you have 30 seconds. Myers the declaration of independence that we should pursue life, liberty and happiness and not every hoosier is able to do that. The question, what should the governor do, how should we lead, house government move forward . I will point terrific leaders to our state agencies. If i wasnt clear at the beginning i plan to reappoint Jennifer Mccormick who has done a terrific job. Seen as we can do better in education than indiana and she will be one of the first people i will sit down with to make the state better. Moderator thank you for being here to share your views on these important issues and thank you to everyone watching or listening to this debate conducted by the Debate Commission. You can hear more from these candidates on tuesday october 20 seventh when they debate again, we want to thank w fyi for hosting this debate and our affiliates and supporters including major sponsors this year, aarp indiana and the indiana broadcasters association. Early voting is underway and election day is tuesday november 3rd. Please be sure to vote and let your voice be heard. On behalf of the indiana Debate Commission, good night. 11 days left until election day. November 3rd when Voters Decide who will control congress and occupy the white house, watched Campaign Coverage every day on cspan. Stream or on demand on cspan. Org or listen on the cspan radio apps, your place for unfiltered view of politics. More campaign 2020 Coverage Later today, joe biden will be in wilmington to talk about the coronavirus and his plans to combat the pandemic live in 2 30 p. M. Eastern on cspan and donald from hold a rally in florida at one of the Worlds Largest retirement communities, villages live at 4 30 on cspan