 Coming up tonight on Lakeland PBS. Lakeland PBS, the Bemidji Pioneer, the Brainer Dispatch, and Northern Community Radio are joining forces to bring you Debate Night 2018. It's four nights of debates involving state lawmakers from throughout North Central Minnesota. On Thursday, October 4th, tune in for the House District 9A debate at 8. And you can be a part of the debates by sending us a question for any or all of the debates. Email them to us at debatesandlptv.org. Celtic Thunder returns with an all-new mesmerizing show. Celebrating 10 years with Celtic Thunder. Deltmes, Celtic Thunder X on public television. Saturday night at 9 on Lakeland Prime. Lakeland PBS thanks the George W. Nielsen Foundation for generously supporting our Building for the Future campaign. Watch the Lakeland news update sponsored in part by Cabinet Corner, now one of Northern Minnesota's largest flooring centers featuring professional installation and eight full-time designers. More information on beautifying your floors at cabinetcorners.com. The Malax Band of Ojibwe is pleased to be a sponsor of Lakeland News on Lakeland Public Television. You can learn more about the Malax Band of Ojibwe on the web at malaxojibwe.org. Programming on Lakeland PBS is brought to you in part by Northwoods Lumber Company. Whether you're doing home remodeling or building, they're dedicated and skilled staff are ready to assist you for both inside and outside projects. All homeowners and contractors welcome. Mid-Minnesota Federal Credit Union, your local full service not-for-profit financial institution. Now part of the co-op shared branch system for access to over 5,400 credit unions nationwide. And the members of Lakeland PBS, thank you. Debate Night 2018 is sponsored in part by AFSCME Council 5, a statewide union of more than 40,000 public employees working together to elect candidates who represent the values of real Minnesotans. Lakeland PBS, the Bemidji Pioneer, the Brainer Dispatch, and Northern Community Radio are proud to present Debate Night 2018, a look at our area of legislative candidates. And now, the State House of Representatives District 9A Debate, your moderator tonight, is Ray Gildow. Welcome to Debate 2018, seven state legislative debates over four nights. Tonight, the debate focuses on House 9A. Our candidates this evening and to my left is Alex Herring, the Democratic farmer-labor candidate. And to his left is John Poston from the Republican Party. Our panelists this evening to my right, to my immediate right, is Dennis Wyman, who is the news director for Lakeland PBS. And to his right is Gabe Lagarde, the Brainer Dispatch political reporter. And then to his right is Heidi Holton, who is a news and public affairs director from Northern Community Radio, KAXE and KBXE. Welcome to everyone. I'm just going to take a second to run through the rules, and then the rules will be posted on the screen if you'd like to look at that also. Opening comments will be three minutes, and the panel will ask questions after the opening comments. Some will be their own questions, others may be from the public. The candidates will rotate the order they speak, beginning with opening comments and finishing with closing comments. Each candidate gets two minutes to answer the question, and each candidate will have one minute rebuttal opportunity. Candidates will have the option of using one minute of bonus time to add on to one of their answers tonight. So you have a one minute bonus sometime during this period. This can be used during the answer to the initial question, or during a rebuttal that can only be used one time. Questions will continue until we are about 50 minutes into the debate, and we move on to closing comments. The closing comments will be two minutes. The moderator will need to cut off people just in case it gets too long, so if you hear me saying time's up, we're not trying to be rude, that's just the rules that we're trying to follow. Beginning debate. We're going to start out with, let me see here, I guess the order is in opening comments, Alex, we're going to go to you first. And you have three minutes. Good evening. My name is Alex Herring, and I'm the Democratic Farmer Labor candidate to be your representative for Minnesota House District 9A. My wife Jill and I have lived in Southern Cass County for the past 22 years. We've been married for 28 years, and our two daughters have attended the local public school system, along with specially-traded schools and colleges in Minnesota. My education is as an architectural designer, initially working with architects and engineers designing hospitals, clinics, assisted living facilities, nursing homes, and eventually a whole bunch of big-box retail stores scattered across the United States. I moved my family to this area to also work with custom homes and local commercial projects. 14 years ago, my wife and I became part-owners of a small construction company, and timing can be everything. That was just before the housing financial crisis or the meltdown. With the extra time I had, I looked at getting involved in area development. And looking at, I joined the North Central Task Force, which was basically a collaboration of state, county, local economic development groups, which included Region 5 Development, the Initiative Foundation, our state colleges, the Lax Band of Ojibwe, and area business and manufacturers. The focus of those was building for the 21st century, as far as structures and what kind of components that we could look at in the future. It also included renewable and alternative energy resources. After we went through a few years of that, we formed another task force with the Central Minnesota Alternative Energy Regional Collaborative. They always have to have big names for those. And along with that, Central Lakes College was also looking for someone to add a workforce training program. Basically, the specialty was going to be high performance construction. And I became part of the Building Performance Institutes, Certified Professional Building Analyst, and Envelope Air Sailing Professional to do the training with workforce in the area. That didn't pan out as something that happened here. It happened in the other metro areas in the state, Minneapolis and Duluth. But the training was very beneficial for myself. It also included getting together with the Minnesota Project and did some farm energy auditor training, which basically put me all across farms, across the state, including photovoltaic and thermal solar installation training up in the Bemidji Technical College. My experience as a designer and modeling contract will be helpful negotiating the challenges of working with different groups and with different opinions. And tonight, I look forward to discussing the reasons I'm running for office through the questions we'll be discussing. Thank you, Alex. John, in your three minutes. Thank you. Good evening. First, I'd like to thank Lakeland Television, the Brainard Dispatch, and KAACC for holding this event this evening. I'm State Representative John Poston. I represent District 9A, which is Southern Cass County, most of Todd and most of Wadena County. I am ending my first session and running for re-election. I'm a retired retail executive, turned business owner in the area, and I also operate a humanitarian food aid organization called Kids Against Hunger in the Brainard Lakes Area. I was previously the mayor of the city of Lakeshore and before that, a city council member for the city of Lakeshore. I tried to position myself well to serve District 9A when it came to committee assignments. I currently serve on six committees, agriculture policy, agriculture finance, veterans affairs, education finance, capital investment, or the bonding committee most people refer to it as, and environmental and natural resources policy and finance. I also am one of six House members that was appointed to the Legislative Water Commission, and I also was appointed because of my work on both agriculture committees to serve on the Minnesota Agriculture Education Leadership Council. I believe I have represented District 9A very well. A couple of the issues that came up when I ran for this position a few years ago was people wanted to know what my attendance would be and what my voting record would be at the end of my first term. And I'm proud to say that I have a 100% attendance record and a 100% voting record. After my first term, I am endorsed by the following. Minnesota Farm Bureau, MCCL, Minnesota Citizens' Concern for Life, NFIB, which is the National Federation of Independent Businesses, Minnesota Chamber of Commerce. I'm A-rated with the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus and A-rated with the National Rifle Association. Thank you again for hosting this event and I look forward to your questions this evening. Thank you. Thank you, John. Our first question this evening will come from Heidi and we'll address that to start with to John. I'd like to give you both the opportunity to tell us about the economic climate of District 9A, the industry, businesses, what you think is working, what maybe isn't, and what any bright spots for the future. Well, I think right now our economy is just okay. It's not great, it's just okay. Our economy is really made up in District 9A of tourism and agriculture. Tourism is doing very well and that is primarily around the Gull Lake chain in Southern Cass County. Farming, however, as you know, has struggled for many years and there's absolutely some opportunity in agriculture and I continue to be an advocate for agriculture and trying to improve the outcomes for our farmers in my work on both of the ag committees and with the Malsea Board that I mentioned earlier. Okay. Thank you. Alex. Hi. In my travels throughout the district, talking with people that are living with how the farm economy is affecting their family, how it's affecting their ability to access healthcare, when they're looking at their dairy farms losing $500 a day, $1,000 a day, and they know that's happening every single day and that's been going on for several years. Now they're looking at different challenges and struggles coming with the tariffs that they don't know what exactly is going to be the outcome of this or even if they're going to have a place to sell their crops to overseas. Basically the overseas market could be going away. We're hearing about farmers that are selling their cows and that's just heartbreaking. When I talk to them on the street and the farms and the coffee shops, we need to take care of that and get them squared and running back the businesses that we need to produce our foods. Our other sources of economy in the area, tourism is a big factor and that's actually spread around the area. We've got bike trails, we've got canoeing, we've got all kinds of things that aren't just focused on water only but I think we're going to see that people still want to come to our area, our community and we've got a great community for them to come to. We want to keep that community and the economy bustling for our residents though. So we need to provide either the jobs and the training that we need but also housing for that workforce that we need to increase. Okay, thank you. Our next question will be from Gabe and we'll start with you, Alex. Okay, good evening. Small businesses are a significant economic driver in the Brear and Lakes area. How do you intend to support small businesses if you are elected? When I'm elected, I see that our small businesses not just in the Brainerd area but throughout District 9A, especially in Todd and Medina County, they're struggling with access to broadband, high-speed broadband. They're struggling to get their small business at home or on the farm or somewhere that's outside of those towns going. What we're seeing is that with Long Prairie, they actually put together their own high-speed broadband connection partnering with CTC here in the area to provide that service in town and talking to some people in town that were moving out, they were really concerned because now they're giving up the high-speed broadband that would help them with their business just by moving out of Long Prairie and so that's a big thing for our small business owners. What I'd like to see is a workforce that can help benefit small businesses and depending on the type of business and the training that they need, that's a key force in helping our residents just get some additional education to either find something that's a major training program or just some during life retraining to fit into those other small businesses. I can see the regulations that people talk about that come together as a small business owner. I'm frustrated with those regulations. I actually feel that that's a good thing for consumers that small businesses have to have licensing and we have to go through continuing education. We have to have some of the regulations in place to protect consumers and provide the quality that the rest of us expect. John. As I mentioned earlier, I am NFIB endorsed and I just recently won a legislative award from the NFIB and NFIB basically for small independent businesses. And I am one of those. I operate a restaurant and catering business in the area and a property management business. So like Alex, I think that there are a lot of burdensome regulations that we can work on and that we can improve. I think some of the tax changes that we've made over the last couple of years are making a difference. I am hearing from businesses in the area that they are feeling a bit more optimistic and things are improving, but there is a lot of work yet to be done. As far as broadband is concerned, it's absolutely necessary. Unfortunately, some of our broadband efforts in the last session were vetoed at the end of the session and did not come to fruition, but we'll continue to work to provide more broadband to Greater Minnesota. We have an issue in Todd and Wadena County and on the western side of Southern Cass where people really struggle to have broadband. When you see kids at the Wendy's and Niswa doing their homework because they don't have broadband at home, they have to go to the fast food restaurant to do their homework or a business person that has to go to a place that has that kind of connection to do their work, that's a sad thing. We need to fix that. You each have one minute now for rebuttal or if you want to add something to that and Alex, it would be your turn first. I'm good. I would just further add that broadband has certainly been a big issue in the legislature. We were told this past session in our policy session that as we come into the finance or the budget session of this upcoming biennium that most broadband people would like to see a certain amount of financing done over a long period of time. In other words, not put out a big lump of money but put out consistent amounts of money over a period of time and that's the direction that the legislature is moving in. Okay, thank you. Next question is coming from Dennis and we'll start with you, John. All right, thanks Ray and thanks to both candidates for being here tonight. Regardless of whether your philosophy on health care calls for government run system, a completely free market or something in between, it seems logical that it's going to be not practical without controlling costs. Tell us some specific ways you would bring about substantial savings needed to ensure the success of health care in Minnesota. Well, I think the goal right now in the Republican Party is to get our health care back to where it was about 10 years ago when we had probably one of the best, we have some of the best health care in the country but we also had some of the best health care insurance in the country. I think it's going to be a free market solution because I think that's the only affordable solution. I'm looking at the single payer option that people are discussing and I'm looking at the cost to taxpayers of that and I think it's just far too burdensome. I've seen estimates in this past week of the cost of somewhere between 18 and 34 billion dollars a year to have state operated health care. I also am very concerned about what it will do to greater Minnesota health care organizations with the amount of payment that they receive on dollars billed so it's going to be a difficult goal for us in greater Minnesota. To put that 18 to 32 or 34 billion dollars into perspective our projected budget for the next biennium is 54 billion dollars. So that's one it's going to take our budget to almost double what it is today and I don't think taxpayers in Minnesota can afford that. Thank you, John. Alex. I support a single payer system and I support a single payer system not just because it's not sucking off the taxpayers there's always going to be health care provided by taxpayers. The premiums, the residents will pay just like you pay premiums now will actually go farther for further benefits and being able to expand those benefits not just because we say we can but we're actually creating a larger pool of insured people and just the definition of that is going to make costs of course go up because there's a larger pool but they're going to be spread across a bigger pool of people with coverage so there's always going to be people that can't afford their premiums and those people are going to be covered and their services that they receive they're going to receive full coverage benefits and they are right now but why not have that full coverage available for all Minnesotans and to work through the legislature to work with providers and you'll notice I'm saying that maybe we won't be able to work well with the insurance companies because of their high administrative costs and possibly just them not insuring everybody because they don't want to take those pre-existing conditions into their pool I think we should create our own pool for Minnesota and insure everyone that needs health care I think we all need health care and yeah I'm going to say health care is right John you have a one minute I believe like Alex that everyone should have health care I believe the tax burden is far too large and taxpayers don't understand that at this point in this conversation about health care I also believe that there are some other devastating numbers that go along with a single payer there are projections out there and these are not partisan projections they're bipartisan projections done by the staff of the legislature that says Minnesota will lose 40,000 jobs if we go to single payer health care and because of the reimbursement rate we can expect our current very good health care systems that we have especially in north central Minnesota are going to be devastated by the reimbursement rates that clinics will receive under this type of system Thank you Alex any rebuttal to that? Sure I'd like to talk about that I think what employer wouldn't be happier to have a workforce that's healthy that's getting preventative health care that's going to get benefits they're going to have coverage and be able to you know that their kids that your employees kids are actually going to the clinic with day cares juggling who's going to watch those kids I think what we're looking at is that single payer health care would really help businesses because it's going to take away those costs that they have with juggling health care premiums every single year we've got to renew the policy we've got to renew the plan who's covered who's not what are the things for businesses so I can't understand why the Chamber of Commerce wouldn't get on board with this what I do want to see is coverage for everyone I've been through pre-existing conditions and all those things with the insurance company and I think it's just something we need to get over Thank you The next question is coming from Heidi and it'll be directed to you Alex So this is somewhat within the realm of health care again but has to do with mental health the suicide rate is increasing at an alarming rate what would you want to do in terms of mental health for our communities when you go to the legislature Mental health is a topic and it's a hard one to talk about with people in our district Tad County and possibly I mean what we're looking at is Tad County is known as the number one county for farmer suicides and that's a hard topic to talk to anyone about when you come down the reality when you're looking at who's available to provide counseling in our state our state has one counselor for farmers that are going through a lot of the struggles that we read about after the fact one counselor for the state now they did squeeze in another one I think with some of the changes that have been made but really that's not enough help available now when we talk about everybody else in our district besides farmers that are struggling with mental health care we really need to provide counseling services that aren't in our jails that aren't just subject to well those people we can't help we're dealing with much bigger than just health care we're dealing with people dependent on that feel good of opioids that affects everything else with their mental health it also affects now suddenly they may have a criminal record and how do they get a job with a criminal record that's going to affect your mental health so these underlying conditions and how they're intertwined is the bigger picture that we just seem to be chipping away a little bit at now they're all intertwined I'd like to be involved in trying to talk about how we get some relief across the state with counseling thank you Jai well I do believe we're in the middle of a mental health crisis we're short on facilities short on mental health beds and we're short on them for pretty much every sector of our population just pretty much everybody so we're clogging up our emergency rooms we're clogging up our jails people are not getting the help that they need so we have to look for a way to have more beds and more facilities and more people involved in mental health care the suicide rate in farmers today with the farm climate is absolutely terrible and getting worse instead of getting better and that's an issue that in District 9A is very very important so I'm an advocate for more mental health facilities, more mental health beds and more mental health counseling and helping our jails and helping our emergency rooms get out of the predicament that they're in thank you John any further comments Alex about the rebuttal I don't know if it's a rebuttal but I think what we really need to look at is at what point have people reached that level where mental health is such a crisis that we haven't allowed them to receive the care to actually succeed enough in life where they're frustrating frustrated and so deeply struggling with either employment or family or the possibility of the business failing or everything else that's going on that we haven't addressed these issues for so long it's become a crisis so this is very important to step up and our representatives just don't seem able to right now John well I would say that I would disagree with not being able to right now for the last couple of sessions this is a crisis that has snuck up on us so to speak like several have recently and I think that the legislature has addressed this in a very straightforward high priority fashion and some of the initiatives that the legislature has taken to fix these problems have been in bills that have been vetoed by our governor and have not been able to move forward thank you our next question is coming from Gabe and it'll be directed to you first John okay so how would you look to address economic barriers to people who are really unable to work but unable to pursue employment on account of inaccessible daycare unaffordable housing or lack of transportation to and from their jobs and lack of child care is certainly an issue in our district and lack of transportation transportation is being addressed and is improving in Modena and Cass County not so much in Todd it's so it's something that we need to continue to work on and try to improve child care we have over-regulated and putting so much burden on these independent child care facilities that it's made it very hard for them to make a living doing this and that's why you've seen many of them close and that's why there's a shortage of it in the past used to be something that you'd see in a lot of local churches and different things and because of the regulations and because of that burden you don't even see that anymore so there's a lot of problems there that certainly have to be fixed we've got to have child care for people that want to get out and work and we've got to have transportation and transportation is a little tricky because of the size and geography of our county but it is getting better for instance there is now a bus that runs from staples into the Brainerd Baxter area every day because so many people that work in staples now live in the Brainerd Baxter area so things are starting to improve thank you Alex yes day care is an obstacle and a challenge and as I understand some of those struggles come from when a family has kids in child care once they have a newborn that day care may only be able to take so many newborns so then they're forced to either split their kids up or find another source and you can't just hop from child care to child care that's something where maybe it's the regulations maybe it's giving the day care a chance to expand and with a home based day care that's obviously a struggle we do have some employers that help with that it's also a challenge for the economic barrier of going to school without day care for a lot of students they depend on that day care as a way to give them a little bit of time to do that focus that study work some of the other things that we learn about with day care is the cost of day care and the people struggling with their employment are dependent on grants to day care grants that allow their kids to go to day care now the size of these grants when you think about how much day care costs that's over $10,000 a year for those grants for people struggling to get to work they need some way for their kids in a day care facility so all of these things are kind of intertwined obviously transportation that's something that if you can't make enough money at your job to pay to get there that's a burden that we have to look at possibly with the livable wage and that's another thank you John any rebuttal or any additional comments there no okay any additional comments from you Alex okay we'll go to the next question and that will come from Dennis and we'll be directing it to Alex alright well thank you and in May the Supreme Court ruled that states may allow sports gambling to do so states would have to pass laws regulating it legalizing sports gambling in Minnesota gotta say I've never really thought about the legalization of sports gambling I think everyone may have a fantasy football team or possibly an office pool or pick numbers on what they think the scores might be I gotta admit it's not something that I've done a lot of thinking about it's something I'd probably want to learn more about the legislation to see how that could affect an increase or a risk or becoming a small Nevada I can see where Las Vegas has rooms dedicated to that I don't know that I need to see I think that's yeah I don't have anything more to add okay John I am not in support of it you know we were talking just a moment ago about mental health and about suicide rates in Minnesota and I will tell you there's a lot of suicide problems connected to gambling we know that you can look at the Native American gambling and some of the suicide rates that they have you can look at suicide rates all over the country where gambling is legalized and it's a problem I just don't see this as being a good thing for Minnesota really in any way shape or form I would be against it Alex any further comment there? No John any additional comments? No I just think it's an unnecessary thing I think Alex talked about you have the little pool at the office they have fantasy football I think those things are fine but legalizing gambling is a whole different thing Thank you Our next question is coming from Heidi and it will be directed to you John So hunting is part of life and part of culture in rural Minnesota I mean many of us have grown up with guns in our lives but I think most people are pretty concerned about safety especially when it comes to our kids What changes if any would you support? What kind of gun control? What are your feelings on gun control? Well I'm a very staunch supporter of our second amendment and will continue to be I've yet to see a bill offered in the state of Minnesota that I felt was a good gun control measure that would improve the safety of Minnesota's or most importantly kids I've worked a lot on school safety and mental health in schools I think that's a bigger problem than the gun is I will tell you that we are as a state our ratios of consular and security officers and nurses and support people in our schools is amongst the worst in the country and that has to improve school resource officers are about 1 to 1200 or 1300 students counselors are 1 to about 900 students and I think those things are very important to identify mental health issues and to secure our schools and we have to do some hardening of our schools as well and we had legislation last year of about 300 million dollars and only 25 million dollars of that was approved because the two other bills carrying funding for school safety were vetoed at the end of the session thank you Alex I personally I only hunt with my truck and I'm trying to get out of that I am a gun owner I believe in responsible gun ownership I believe there's a process to follow to not just the guns you select but also the ammunition you select to use whether you're going with stainless steel for hunting and not putting lead into our natural resources you're not putting lead into your children in their diet and affecting the health of your family I think that there's some things we need to look at and I don't believe it's gun control we have to focus on I think it's gun safety and that's more of an issue with responsible gun ownership and when I go to the conservation clubs you see that the kids are getting training on responsible gun ownership they're getting training about how to they do think the things that they should think so that they're comfortable around guns and not looking at them as a power tool so I'd like to see not more gun legislation not more and that includes things like no permit required where anyone can carry whatever they like wherever they want and not have to answer to law enforcement I just want to see basically the laws we have and be responsible like most of us are thank you any rebuttal to that John? I think our gun laws are very strong today in the state of Minnesota there are very very few gun crimes that happen in the state of Minnesota by people who have permits to carry for instance and those are people that go through training classes I think it's great for kids to go through training classes I think we have more of a mental health issue than we have a gun issue and that's something that we definitely as we said earlier need to work on thank you any rebuttal to that Alex? I think there's always going to be an ongoing gun discussion and as long as we're open to talking about it and I'm not sure how few crimes happen with guns I don't know if I can support that and I think that we have to consider that possibly the largest way people commit suicide so if we have an increase in suicide I don't want to say that's a crime but it is affecting not just mental health but basically the places we go the civil we want to go to events and expect to be safe we want our schools to be safe we want to go to the movie theater and be safe we want to go to the store and be safe we want to go to our job and be safe so there's some things we need to really look at and I think that's what's biggest part is that we're not being allowed to look at and study how these affect our our areas okay thank you our next question is coming from Gabe and it will be directed to you Alex okay just kind of taking I guess a step back from policy and maybe looking a little bit more at the process especially in terms of the last two sessions the legislature has been criticized for failing to act on several pieces of important legislation and kind of waiting until the 11th hour to review many important bills how can that be changed I guess for the legislature to function more effectively going forward I think part of the hassle that we run into at the end of the session is seeing bills that aren't they're no longer a single topic bill they've been morphed into something that has 20 topics 20 topics 900 pages unlimited topics so the focus on keeping a single topic for that legislation allows us to actually go through the process work the bill and not have as much partisanship based on some other things that are outlying and we're seeing that with how it's handled by blaming Governor Dayton for vetoing something he's vetoing something that's including other things and it's frustrating when we learn about the the public sees the funding they need the projects they need the legislation they need but it's hampered up as a garbage item whether it's benefits for veterans services for veterans it gets garbaged up with other things and that's something that it frustrates us all we want to take care of the people that have served us we want to take care of the health care providers that are looking after people that are disabled but we're seeing that those funding packages that they need to make improvements and take care of people to get the health they need they're being cut because of these omnibus bills that are just full of other garbage so that's focusing on what the matter of hand is how I'd like to see our legislative legislation proceed John? Well there are very few garbage bills almost all of our omnibus bills at the end of the session are single subject they come through the committee process where you know they if you take an agriculture bill everything in that agriculture bill is agriculture it's all come through the committee process it's gone through the house side it's gone through the senate side it's come to an agreement between the two before it's voted off of the floor on both houses there are some bills that come to the end the one at the end of last year that I'll be very specific about was a tax bill that provided tax conformity with the federal government and tax improvements for Minnesotans and we sat down with the governor and we went through that tax bill he had 117 things in the tax bill that he didn't like we removed 76 of those measures which I would call real compromise and then he said I'd like you to add school safety money into this bill and I will sign it so we added school safety money into that bill and he still vetoed it so there are some things at the end of the session that get thrown in together into some bills but there's only a couple of them happen that way those are the last bills that get done and they're the bills that the public wants us to work on right up to the end of the session to make sure we get the bill as best it can possibly be but this idea that all garbage omnivist bills filled with all kinds of crazy things is just not true Alex you got a one minute rebuttal and that's enough garbage that's it no more comments okay John do you have any other comments okay we'll move on to the next question that'll be coming from Dennis and it'll be directed you first John do you feel we are funding education sufficiently and what would your goals be for education funding if elected I am on education finance I believe that our per pupil increase in this last budget round was 2% and 2% which I would have liked to have actually seen be a little bit more than that but it was actually 9% from one biennium to the next so that was a pretty healthy increase we fall just above the midpoint in the states in the country with our funding per pupil I think we can do better I think we need to do better and I think greater Minnesota in many cases comes out on the short end so I am going to be an advocate for education equality if you will between greater Minnesota and metro Minnesota but the 2% probably should have been in my mind 2.25 or 2.5 but the 9% from one biennium to the other is a pretty healthy increase Alex I believe we need to put a lot of funding into education and that sounds like a great way to start I think what we have to look at and one of these alleviates one of the initial questions with workforce and struggling with childcare we need to look at some pre kindergarten programs we need to look at that as a way to help alleviate that childcare burden that we are seeing with workforce we need to look at the school lunch program where kids are potentially not eating a meal that day except for school lunch how can we expand to make sure that they are getting a breakfast a school lunch and if they need it some kind of meals throughout the weekend we are looking at aging schools I toured the open house at Staples and got a walk through of their tech area it is kind of dated it is very dated actually so if we are looking at trying to have a workforce of the future that is trained on not just academically but in all classes on electronics on welding things that they can start in school and learn about and move on to either post secondary education that is something that is funded to a vocational program we are looking at some very high tech programs that are technical colleges that train programming and design work and those things that we need for the future if we are going to do any manufacturing in our state in Minnesota and train our workforce thank you John I think everyone deserves a real quality education I think that our community and technical schools are greatly improving and that is going to be a very important part of our state's education programs going forward there are going to be a lot of younger people that are going to go to that two year community or technical college rather than four years and what I have seen from Minnesota State is they are gearing up for that change but the toughest part about education is when we go into the budget part of the biennium which we will go into this next session we have to remember there is a budget and there is a lot of money that people in Minnesota can bear the burden of supplying from a tax standpoint and you try to weigh all those things out so I think we can do a little bit better thank you Alex any further comments there? I would like to talk about the topic of tuition for higher learning for community colleges people are talking about maybe we should have free tuition for two year schools and that is something that I don't necessarily think that free is going to help us when we are looking at how much of a budget we have to work with but I think what we need to look at is that exchanging tuition for working with our government services for helping out whether it is the military whether it is medical it is just social services if we can help get those students a paid internship within our government offices or something that might help not just give them some experience but help them by exchanging the tuition and relieve that debt burden that may be another question I don't think free education is something in two year college that we can afford as a state but I think there's a lot of things we can do to relieve some of that debt depending on what kind of positions they go into and take but I do believe we can do something with zero interest or very low interest loans to help them with that debt once they get through school you each had a minute you used part of your minute for the extra minute and that's okay would you like to make any comments with a final minute before we go into closing comments let's bring that bonus question in there closing comments and Alex we'll start with you you have two minutes each and that will bring our debate to a conclusion great Cass Todd and Wadena County they deserve progressive leadership and a strong voice of representation the voices I hear from residents in Southern Cass Todd and Wadena County we should really talk about single-payer health care coverage for all Minnesotans with access to quality care facilities support counseling services and looking after our veterans helping farmers provide healthy food and receive fair compensation for their labor securing a living wage protecting pensions and fixed incomes against inflation as a struggle of our seniors affordable housing for families and seniors for a long term for fair taxes what if we commit an investment for the long term we can fully fund public education provide affordable job and business training and increase access to child care we need to be repairing and expanding our crumbling transportation and utility infrastructure broadband coverage must be funded and completed to connect with health care education entrepreneurs and jobs would you commit to renewable energy solutions and protecting our clean water I'm asking to be your voice to fix what's broken and secure our future for Central Minnesota I'm endorsed by Education Minnesota the Minnesota AFL-CIO the SEIU AFSHME and Minnesota Farmers Union along with some other progressive unit groups for Minnesota together we can build a better Minnesota my name is Alex Herring I need your help I need your help with spots for yard signs I need help with volunteers I need your vote please vote for me to be your representative for Minnesota House 9A thank you thank you John thank you representing District 9A it's really been an honor I love the work that I do I love the changes that I've made I want to continue to be your representative I want to continue to work on the issues that I have started working on over the past couple of years I'd like to thank you all for hosting this event again and I would just simply ask for your vote on November 6th Alex, thank you for being here with me thanks John and thank you all for this evening and that concludes our debate this evening on 9A and thank you to both of our candidates for taking the time to share your views with our viewers we appreciate it very much and a very kind and civil debate it's good to see if you've missed any portion of tonight's debate and would like to watch it again it will be available within 24 hours that's lptv.org also you may get a recap of tonight's debate if you pick up a copy of tomorrow's brainer dispatch or log on to the brainer dispatch website at brainerdispatch.com our next debates will be tomorrow night Friday at 7 o'clock will be 10B House candidates Phil Yetzer the DFL candidate and Dale Lewick, the Republican candidate and at 8 o'clock will be the House candidate A candidate Joss Heinzman who is a Republican and Dale Mink who is the DFL candidate thank you all for joining this this evening and don't forget to tune in to us at 10 o'clock for your local news good evening the Lakeland calendar is sponsored by EL Mink Jewelers on Laurel Street in Brainer EL Mink Jewelers is your home for fine jewelry and jewelry repair in the heart of downtown Brainerd the Watermark Arts Center Bemidji Woven Opening Reception we tell stories tomorrow from 5 to 7 with an artist talk that begins at 6 the Brainerd Public Schools Foundation will host a Warrior Homecoming run at Kiwanis Park on Saturday beginning at 8am visit bpsf.org for more information Paul Douglas will present a Christians perspective on climate change at Lutheran Church of the Cross Celebration Center in Niswas Saturday beginning at 1 the 2018 fall studio tour will be held on Saturday from 10 to 5 visit mccrustyartcenter.org for more maps and more information United Way's Coats for the Community Distribution Day will be held at First Lutheran Church in Bemidji Saturday from 9 to 1 for more information call 218-444-8929 On American Experience The American Circus turned entertainment into an industrial enterprise It transforms America into a nation with a shared cultural identity The Circus on American Experience See at Monday Night at 8 on Lakeland Prime Next time on The Great American Read The Joy Luck Club, Pride and Prejudice and Gone with the Wind are just a few of the books we'll explore when we embrace what we do for love on The Great American Read See at Wednesday Night at 8 on Lakeland Prime Lakeland PBS The Bemidji Pioneer The Brainer Dispatch and Northern Community Radio are joining forces to bring you Debate Night 2018 It's 4 nights of debates involving state lawmakers from throughout North Central Minnesota On Friday October 5th watch the House District 10B Debate at 7 and the House District 10A Debate at 8 and you could be a part of the debates by sending us a call