Place for businesses want to be an ad jobs and grow jobs but we also have to make Smart Investments in our future and infrastructure, education, workforce training and we need to support her workers by raising the minimum wage. Im running for governor to rebuild Rhode Islands middle class and create tens of thousands of goodpaying jobs and i have experience to do that. Prior to becoming treasurer ran a business and we helped to create over 1000 jobs. I am running for governor to rebuild the state can get rhode island back to work. Moderator thank you ms. Raimondo and now Robert Healey an attorney and businessman a partial owner of a Liquor Import Company called peaceville. Mr. Healey has run for statewide office six times. He attended Rhode Island CollegeBoston University and Northeastern University and the new England School of law. Mr. Healey. Healey thank you. I would like to thank you and thank my opponents for being here tonight. I need you to look at me and the reason for that is because you probably wont see much of me over the next two weeks. I didnt get any campaigns donations from wall street insiders or city union contractors. Im only replying on the people and free media to get my message out. The only good thing about that is probably as governor i would only answer to one boss and out boss being you the people. You may say you are wasting your vote if you vote for me but if you dont vote for the person he best represents you you are wasting your vote then. If you want to pick winners i say go to the racetrack. If you want to pick a leader you will have to think wisely when you go to the polls. Moderator mr. Healy or time is up there want to thank each of the candidates and now lets get to the topics that hampered as you all know there is no strict format to tonights debate. We are looking for an open and honest discussion of the issues. I will also for some backandforth as long as its ontopic. We have a lot of ground to cover so if youre not answering the question taking too long i will jump in. I want to start with a topic that are viewers have been hearing a lot about lately and thats because mr. Fung and ms ms. Raimondo have been battling through television commercials. Right now this is making bond payments on the 89 million taxpayers pull to bondholders to the sales ventures. Mr. Fung one of your ads claim ms. Raimondo wants a bailout blog wall street. Financial agencies like movies have said defaulting on the loan would severely damage rhode island credit rating. We all understand 38 studios is an popular but are you playing politics with the states bond rating . Fung i would never play politics with the bond rating of what i want the voters to know is i will stand with them every single day but do it in a factual way. We dont know that this was a mistake from the first instance would wear it i find critical is the general treasure and the governor chaffee continuing to make it worse trade we have not done our Due Diligence in launching a full investigation particularly when the state is making allegations of fraud in their lawsuit to recover money. Secondly that sj advisor that the governor and general treasure raimondo were applie applied relied on his faulty. We have seen one of the rating agencies fitch say they would not drop to junk bond status. I think the taxpayers and the voters in rhode island deserve to know the truth before we make any commitment one way or the other on that because its too big of a commitment for us and it could be utilized in other areas such as tax cuts, a tax Reduction Plan and education. Moderator mr. Fung can you promise voters that the default will be less than any higher interest that the state may incur by not paying the bond back . Can you make that promise tonight . Fung mala thing i can promise is i will call for a full investigation of whats going on. The taxpayers of rhode island deserve to know before they make a commitment one way or the other and thats why im proud to argue for and tested for that investigation so we can get to know the truth and second of all im proud to stand on behalf of the taxpayers and file a letter with the sec because there was allegations of Insider Trading and it certainly didnt look good when one of the bondholders sold the day before they close the deal. Moderator ms. Raimondo mr. Fung youth says you have made it worse. Your response . Raimondo unlike mayor fung i thought this tip from the beginning. When i was running for treasury i was in office when the deal happen but as running for treasurer and critical of it and i spoke out against it. Mayor fung who was in office was silent. In fact two weeks ago he was campaigning with the architect of this. It was a time to stop this deal which was before it happened and i fought it. I dont want to repay it but we have to repay it because the experts have told us if we dont repay it is going to cost twice as much. Thats a fact. The bondholders are going to be okay either way. They have insurance. I care about the people of rhode island and they are going to be Stuck Holding the bag and its going to cost twice as much money if we dont repay it. This isnt easy politics you know. Hes doing the easy political thing, telling voters what they want to hear, the repay it. Im not going to do that. Leadership means doing the right thing even when its difficult politics and in this instance its clear. Its like your credit card bill. If you dont pay your credit card bill you get higher interest charges. Moderator we choose what we pay in her credit card bill. You think voters should have a say on any bond that goes out in the state of rhode island from here on out . Raimondo it was inappropriate to do a moral Obligation Bond for 100 million or 75 million. Of boniface i shouldve gone to the people and again i was very critical. I fought it that now at this point the right thing to do is to repay it. The last date state to default was arkansas back in 1938. It would be a huge black eye across the country of order and that im running for governor to rebuild rhode island to move the state forward not to go back. Moderator mr. Healey before you when i want to mr. Fung to respond to something that ms. Raimondo said. She said the governor former governor was on your Advisory Committee when you are deciding to run. You have used it as a campaign prop. How do you square that with voters . Healey if i could respond to one point. I would like to question the treasures judgment on this and i think the rhode island voters to know. I stood up and asked for a full investigation when allegations move forward. Sending an email is not fighting for the taxpayers and as far as judgment lets talk about the treasury judgment. We hiring the same Financial Advisers that put us into that deal for southwest she and governor chaffee rehired those individuals when we as a state or suing them for fraud. I question her judgment. Raimondo i also would like an investigation but but thats afterthefact. Where was he as an elected official before it happened . I was out there saying dont do this deal and i can promise you if i had been governor would not have happened. I also have called for an independent investigation and let me tell you if there was any fraud people would be held accountable. The problem is in the meantime we have to pay our bills because if we dont do will be twice as expensive for the people of rhode island and rhode island families can handle that. Moderator i was kind of questions for both of you but i would let mr. Healy, people dont know where you stand on this. Healey i think we really have not seen taxpayers, the full investigation that went forward. I think that is part of go with condition i. E. Pay the bonds. Im not opposed to not paying. In fact i think that might be of benefit to the state in that if we do have higher credit costs we would do less borrowing. Certainly if i were governor at the time i too would have stopped the project. What we are arguing over, what could have or should it happen we have to look at what the reality is. We are paying off bonds and what we call a moral obligation and yet at the same time this same General Assembly is saying we dont have any moral obligation for the pensions we have taken away from people . There is a moral obligation to our own people and not the people on wall street. Thats the most important, to take care for on first. Moderator mr. Healey you said in your economic plan this date pays its debt in knott. Healey a moral obligation is not in my opinion and obligation of the state of rhode island. Moderator moderator is that a back . Healey its a promise to pay for something that the state did not engage in. Moderator ms. Raimondo i wanted to respond briefly to mr. Fung. He wants to know what others do too why did you that firm back . Raimondo thank you for giving me a chance to clarify. In my administration i have a policy that any time a contract comes through we put out to bid and win this contract came up with put it out to bid. Unfortunately only two firms replied to the rfp and the principles of both firms were involved in 38 studios. We do the best that we could end the committee unanimously approved hiring them. However we hired them in a way that allows at anytime for any reason without penalty so if at this point its not clear they did anything wrong. If at some point it becomes clear they did something wrong but obviously we will fire them and they will be held accountable. Moderator mr. Fung you never answered my question regarding what she said about former governor fung the governor has not been campaigning with me so that is false. What also i can bring to voters to know about the general treasure is this. There were two individuals that applied. The other option, the other fiscal advisers are the largest fiscal advisers in the country. They certainly were a viable option. Why would you choose, why would you not choose them over some of the state is suing for fraud for committing these allegations . Why a fresh . Why should we rush because there are other options. We could set aside the money in escrow do our Due Diligence before we make any commitments. This is too critical of the decision. Millions of dollars in the state could be put to better use for the taxpayers. Moderator we are going to go to wpri. Com reporter the question. There has been talk in a campaign about jobs and high Unemployment Rate so i want to ask you about your opinions on that and we will start with you. Isnt this your plan is a great way to Innovation Institute or college of corporate it hasnt attracted academic bidders. What would you do differently to drum up interest in how much would that cost taxpayers . Raimondo i would like to use the 195 when they rerouted the highway we now have land available. I would like to use that land to have an Innovation Institute and it would be funded not by the state but by collaborations between universities and industry. Its what they are doing in ohio and new york city. In new york city they had roosevelt island. They did a global competition and they invited universities and industries from all over the world to bid on putting in their case and Applied Science institute together. Cornel came together with that is raised at Technical University who came together with google and their artery on their way to creating thousands of jobs. Imagine if we did the same thing and we could bring together and have an advanced manufacturing institute. Something designed to take a great idea coming out of our colleges and universities and turn them into products we make here. Thats the kind of gamechanger we need. It wouldnt cost the taxpayers really anything. Moderator you are spending roughly 100 million on infrastructure. They gave cornel the land for free so could you see yourself sending over 100 million on this project . Raimondo you make a fair point. I would be interested to give away the land. You see for too long and rhode island we have been shortsighted and what we need to do is invest in growth. The story of rhode island as we used to be a jeweler manufacturing mecca. Although mecca. All those jobs went overseas and our leaders did nothing to reposition ourselves for jobs for the future in massachusetts did. They have Information Technology and biotechnology and they are thriving and we have been left behind. Under my leadership we are going to thrive by pulling together industry with universities to fundamentally recreate our economy and industries became the break grade at marine science and industrial sites and create tens of thousands of jobs good middleclass jobs to rebuild. Moderator you acknowledge it could have a significant cost to to taxpayers if its modeled on the new york plan. Raimondo you have to think of it as a smart investment and growth. Moderator i want to move on to mr. Fung. You mention in your Opening Statement cutting taxes by up to 200 billion in the state budget. Theirs are the projected budget of 173 173 million. How would you close such a huge shortfall in the state . Fung first of all i want to let people know the part of my plan has been implemented by this General Assembly this past session. The numbers will still have to be reworked and we are going to continue to put that plan into place that will put more money back into the taxpayers pockets. Moderator how much is the new total after what the General Assembly did . Fung we have to wait and see what the overall numbers are going to come out in what the actions are going to be. Until we get an accurate projection based upon what we are seeing, whats happening what we are likely to finish with its going to be difficult to sell. What i can say is if we implement that 200 milliondollar plan based upon what i have put forward it would make our state one of the most competitive in the northeast and send a message to Business Owners here particularly small Business Owners that have to pay them minimum business tax. Lets cut that in half and go further if we can pretty think like all the world landed what islanders watching tonight im also tired of seeing many rhode island license plates going north to massachusetts spending our hardearned dollars in the borders up there. Lets get our sales tax down. Moderator mr. Fung even if you scale back the numbers the 300 milliondollar budget tax fall how would you close such a large budget gap . Fung this is where the rhode island taxpayers have to put their trust in me. The experience i have is the mayor of cranston innovating and making sure we are consolidati consolidating. Initiatives like that have to be tackled with at the state budget as well. Im proud of the fact that we have worked with other cities and towns on a big important issues like health care. Working with northern rhode island cities like lincoln to save on Administrative Health care costs providing for Mail Services for the senior centers. Those initiatives are saving taxpayers dollars invested type of moderator from your previous debate you have had workforce as part of your standing. How many state employees would lose their jobs if you cut 5 of them . Fung what we are talking about the cuts is making sure there operational efficiencies at all levels. Thats where the experience as cranston mayor and finding efficiencies consolidating functions for every camp that is what i will put to task tackling our state budget as well. Just ask yourself why is it for similar sized state population wise north of us are state budget is billions more than New Hampshires . Ask yourself. Take a look at the General Assemblys budget and rhode island. Why is it millions more than the legislature voted in New Hampshire who had many more members . Moderator mr. Healy use it explicitly do not have a jobs plan and you dont see the governments function is creating jobs but you have an Economic Development plan. You were recently i can only say my jobs plan is a common upon the state working together. What would be your top policy probe healey one of the things we have to look at is regulation. As a state where overregulated. We have to make it easy for that to happen. The second problem is taxation. We need to make property taxes lower so businesses will come in and set up employment and move the money through the system that way. I have suggested that we take the teachers contracts and municipality and move it to a state contract, one state contract and in doing so what you can do is you can relieve many of the property taxes in most cities and towns. That would lower the rents and lower the taxes on businesses in a commercial industry that comes into rhode island. They would be favorable to doing them by coming in and creating jobs for people who are working to pay the taxes required to pay the schools. The interesting part about that would be that it would allow seniors on fixed incomes to stay in their homes because the tax rate would be lessened and we could use some of the housing burden i think. I also think keeping a local School Committee would allow the local School Committees to be focused on education and education priorities rather than in terms of financial obligations. I think in a holistic sense you cannot attack the problem by saying lets throw money at jobs. Businesses come in and take the money and ask what they have done with the state of rhode island in the league. Moderator ms. Raimondo both of your opponent to talk about taxes and youre talking about something that builds money. It. Raimondo mayor fung says to trust him because of his record in cranston. His record in cranston is that he continue continued to raise taxes. He came into office and year after year after year raise property taxes on