Supporting Charlie Baker for governor. That is because Charlie Baker has created jobs and fixed government. Charlie baker got people off of welfare and left massachusetts is first in jobs. In the massachusetts right direction. Im voting for Charlie Baker. She has been a powerful advocate for women and kids and one of the toughest opponents that wall street in the big banks have ever seen. Martha coakley is running for governor with a plan for an economy that works for everyone. So that people get the skills that they need to succeed. Mass transit, creating regional economies so that every area of the state can thrive. Martha insiders choice, she is our choice. Governor . Thats optimistic. Why . We were number one in job creation. Americas best health care company. Ask to our bipartisan and prochoice. Which is what we need. We can meet they we can make massachusetts great by lowering spending, controlling taxes, and requiring work for welfare. More jobs, dad . Ive done it before. Special decision 2014 debate, live from the hanover theater for performing arts in worcester, massachusetts. The Gubernatorial Debate brought to you by Worcester Regional Chamber of commerce and the telegram gazette and hanover theatre for the performing arts. Martha coakley and Charlie Baker, our panelists, alison king, chris sinacola. Moderating the debate is [applause] good evening and welcome. Tonights debate is distinct differences between Charlie Baker and Martha Coakley. And the differences by the candidates and speaking to each other directly. There is one rule we will follow and that is timekeeping. The candidates will put a period at the end of their sentence when they are done. Give a huge round of applause to Martha Coakley and Charlie Baker. [applause] charlie, you won the coin toss. I know you said you have done nothing wrong and you said you have done nothing wrong. You made a 10,000 donation to the Republican State Committee and several months later, the state of new jersey invested 15 million in a company you were in. How to does not violate new jerseys rules . I have been transparent. When the issue was raised, the attorney happened to be the former general counsel and i gave to my Employment Contract plus every other document associated and said if there is a problem here, please tell me what it is and i will be happy to correct it. He wrote a lengthy report, 15 pages in all, spelling out everything and interpretation of the law in new jersey and the documents i gave. At the end, i did not need to make corrections. It is available for anyone who wants to read it. I submitted all of my income tax. I have done everything i could do to make public this issue and at this point in time, i do not believe i have done everything wrong. The lawyer basically agree with me. Martha, you have a different take. The one thing you have not done charlie is turn over the copy of your Employment Contract. You gave it to the lawyer to do that. Two things remain. You are still under investigation. Why when you clear up the question for voters in massachusetts . And why wouldnt your friends in new jersey, the governor there, release the results of this report. They were supposed to determine whether or not there was a violation by you. Today, they said it will be a few weeks and we heard it will not be out until november 16. It does not look good. First, the investigation will be done whenever it is done. I believe the documentation we made available to the public face of the review done by the attorney, he is a former general counsel at the federal election commission. I gave them all of the documentation and he cleared it. The only person on this date who has been fined for Campaign Violations is the attorney general who paid a 24,000 fine for violations. You are smiling, i think you have an answer. If any errors were made known to me, ive moved to make them transparent. Those were not fined, they clearly were not defined. Own top of that, why would you not release your Employment Contract . There was a issue about elizabeth warrens heritage and you called upon her to release it. You could give up your Employment Contract and you will not do it. I hired an attorney. I gave them all of the documentation associated and you wrote up a major review which went into great detail about my employment agreement. The document would tell them a lot about what was in that agreement and how it works. At this point and time, the issue is going to be decided when they issue their final report. I would imagine the attorney general would know investigation is finished when they finish. When it is available, the folks will release it. One followup. Do you regret giving that donation . Well, yeah. [laughter] you wish you had never done it . At the time, i wanted to support the governor who has been supportive of me when i ran for governor in 2010. I was completely transparent about the fact i made the donation as well. And transparent about the fact i was working with the general counsel. The 15 million invested, do you think it wouldve happened if you did not make the donation . It wouldve had nothing to do with it. The state of new jersey made a 50 return on it in less than two years. It was a good investment for pensioners. That is not in the point. They just divested that and i am not sure of the reasons. It does not look good. This is about Insider Information and that is what the pay to play is about. We have the situation where it appears to be a pay to play in the delay on the report. I would call on you and an easy way to release your Employment Contract. One final word, charlie. If someone can make a 50 return on their investment, is a good deal for pensioners and officers and teachers and firefighters and most pension systems including the one in massachusetts would love to get a 50 return. Lets move on. Martha, some recent polls have been in charlie favor. The boston globe has endorsed him. Headlines have been chasing you. Why arent you leading . Thank you for that question. I appreciate that what matters of course is not a newspapers endorsement. I believe this race is pretty close right now. People believe that what i have been focused on since i got into the race a year ago was on traveling around the state and listening to people about what they needed and where we could go as the economy started to turn around. Because i believe we have the best ideas about turning the economy around for earned sick time and giving people Early Education and when they do not have doctors to do it, and making sure we invest in our kids, so that have the jobs in the future. That is what is going to win this race. I am confident we will win on november 4. Charlie, you get 45 seconds. You got the globe endorsement. Republicans have not had it for a long time. Is it a close race or not . I have been gratified for what wouldve gotten from the voters across the commonwealth and received endorsements from the boston globe and every massachusetts paper has endorsed our campaign. I believe they believe that the State Government is broken and the next governor of massachusetts needed to be a proven leader and manager with tremendous success in the Public Sector and private sector and served in local government. Clearly, the voters have it gone up from 20 points behind to a little ahead. We will move on. First, our panelists. This is for Charlie Baker. You do not say much about welfare reform on the campaign trail but your advertisements show you will be aggressive. Given the Legislature Passed a reform bill, how much further do you want to go with welfare reform and is it one of her Top Priorities . Excuse me. You know, we have spent a fair amount of time talking about reform of many kinds, including to our welfare system. Many of the reforms part of the package we put together last spring became part of the legislative reform package at the end of the session. I would be in support and look forward to implementing. I spent time in the city all worcester with the former mayor. They have, with a series of initiatives of how to help people basically find their way out of Public Housing and into selfsufficiency. The more we can do to build on those types of programs, the better off we will be. The vast majority of folks on Public Housing would like to find a way off. If you could wave a magic wand and do one thing with welfare reform, what would you do . Name one thing you would promote. The big think as part of that package was coming up with a strategy to help people find their way to work. At the end, everybody wants purpose and want to work and find their way to a job and that should be a fundamental objective. Martha coakley, you do not talk much about welfare reform and is it a part of your agenda . Charlie proposed what would put caps on how long somebody would stay on housing. People who can get out sooner will and i believe there are ways to do it by giving people the work skills they need, that help and investing in them and not looking at cap. I also believe i have been prosecuting and going after Convenience Stores who have been involved in ebt fraud and any company that has been found guilty should not sell lottery or alcohol. I do not want any kids to go hungry and i want the dollars for assistance. We will go to a question for Martha Coakley. A report said you called casey into your office where you told him to stop his investigation and to the speaker of the house and others involved in the software controversy. Saying according to sullivan there was no evidence anyone had crossed a bright line into criminality. One person is serving an eightyear sentence and there were also others convicted. Were you trying to give him a pass . I am glad you asked that question. I am glad you asked. That report occurred i have said and i will say tonight, absolutely untrue what Greg Sullivan has said. That never happened and i never said that. What the voters should know is that we brought state cases against Richard Vitali that was applicable to something involved of something that was against lobbying laws. I brought the charges with the resources they have to get that conviction. The statement is untrue in the globe and all of our documents support it. We did the investigation. And we got convictions of three people involved in ticket scandals. And Greg Sullivan was flat out lying. Either flat out lying or flat out wrong. I have documentation. Greg sullivan has a distinguished career as a leading democrat on beacon hill, first in the legislature and then an investigator or before the Attorney Generals Office and serving several terms as the Inspector General before he retired. He has a number of major convictions that were part of investigations that he led during his time as both an investigator and Inspector General. He served his last term by the attorney general and the auditor and the governor. He is a person of extraordinary High Integrity and his response to the character assassination issued by your campaign yesterday and compelling reading specific dates, times. The attorney general owes the public an explanation for that. The Inspector General does not bring charges, he does investigations. Secondly, i am the one who brought the charges and got convictions against richard and dickey. I would ask you why you took money in this campaign from richard . I prosecuted convicted felons and you are taking money from them. You are going to change the subject and you still are not going to respond. I would be happy to send it back to richards check. If you really want to clear the air on this one all you need to respond to the allegations that were raised by Greg Sullivan. We have and we will. This is not a two bit guy, but a reputation for forthrightness and honesty and commitment. For him to be attacked the way you folks attacking yesterday is beyond the pale. You owe him an explanation of the board for the issues he raised. The issue is whether he was correct or not. Lets stick with the merits. He was wrong about that and with the document he was wrong. Why he said it to the globe, i do not know. Besides that, i know, i cooperate of with the u. S. Attorney in the investigation. The record demonstrates that. We have three people in jail and you got a check for one. We will leave it there. Chris, give us some questions. No checks but we will move onto everybodys favorite topic. Taxes. Martha, you recently had an idea of the graduated income tax. Something voters have in the past rejected. Do you think it is a better and fairer means of raising revenue than a flat income tax . No, that was a discussion we had on what i said and asked about, what would you do if you had to look at income . The primary response is we look at moving forward with the income taxes coming down to 5. 2 . I believe as the economy turns around and our economy is moving as twice the pace of any state in the country. As the economy turns around, the income tax goes down to 5 . We talked about something the legislature was working at. I know it takes a Constitutional Convention to change it. I hope we do not raise them. Chris, you want to followup with charlie . I guess the first thing i would say, if you think our economy isnt growing, you would need to get out of the office more. The people i talk to is anxious. If they have a job, they are worried about keeping it. As i campaigned across this state, the working people of massachusetts have been on the receiving end of dozen of tax increases over the past seven or eight years. The first thing they say to me is i feel like ive been nickel and dimed to death. If theres one big difference, i say this to the voters, i am not going to raise your taxes. The attorney general has made it clear that she will. Can i respond . In 2010, he was happy to take a no new taxes, but you have not done it and you have not signed it. You talk about a lot of things you want to do but you will not talk about where the money will come from. The difference between charlie and me as the economy turns around, i will roll out a red carpet for business. We need to make sure our people are prepared for the jobs and our kids get Early Education and Stem Education with art and music. Make colleges is affordable and available to people. That is where he differs. He has a republican playbook. Lets hold it right there. I hear this a lot. I wish the attorney general would read my Economic Development plan. Tax incentives for business to hire people coming off public assistance. Tax incentives for business to hire veterans and income tax credit that will go primarily to low income, single moms with children that would help make work pay. A series of initiatives to build main street and gateway cities and support Small Businesses as they go through the process of licensing and rulemaking. Our proposals, virtually most of our proposals are all about helping Small Businesses in massachusetts and people who deserve a chance to work and build themselves into selfsufficiency and that is the primary focus. Let me stop. Chris, you have another tax question. Speaking of getting taxes lower. Back in 1989, the legislature put in a temporary tax increase for income tax. That was supposed to last for a year and a half. It is still with us in some form and has come down. The series of triggers in place when the economy does will and we shave 0. 5 which cost 145 million. In 2000, voters said put it back at 5 . You at one time was a 555 guy. Why not go back to five immediately . We should work it back to 5 . My goal would be to get it back to 5 . That is something that has to be done through a series of initiatives to help grow the economy and generate the kind of activity that would trigger the reductions. The one thing i will say is i am not going to raise taxes. I think the tax code is way too complicated and especially complicated for Small Businesses and we need to do everything we can to simplify it and i will do it as governor. My goal is to get it back to 5 . I agree with charlie. That happens under our current stature as the economy turns around and that will happen as we went from 5. 25 to 5. 2 . Part of his plan includes removing corporate filing taxes and the type of things that some estimate it will be 600 million off the table of revenue that we do not have. Things businesses have not asked for. I have look at your plan and i hope the voters do. You look at giving breaks to corporations. I see investing in people and education to get jobs. We have jobs going vacant and people do not have jobs and we need to close that gap. I start from a different point. I want to invest on what people will be able to do as we turn around the economy for everybody. Not just boston and cambridge, north adams and others. Lets take a question. We want to include this from the telegram gazette reader named alfred and he writes. He takes us back to 1980. On the fells acres day care scandal martha, what did you have to say . I did not become District Attorney until 1998. Ive just been in the office. The most important thing to understand is someone who served for seven years and understood the difficulty of bringing children in an investi