 up tonight on Lakeland PBS. Lakeland PBS thanks the George W. Nielsen Foundation for generously supporting our Building for the Future campaign. Watch Debate Night 2018, 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 2B Debate. Your moderator tonight is Bethany Wesley. Thank you for joining us tonight on Lakeland PBS. Thank you for joining us tonight on Lakeland PBS. Thank you for joining us tonight on Lakeland PBS. Your moderator tonight is Bethany Wesley. Good evening. Welcome to Debate Night 2018. We continue our Debate Night series this week as we feature seven state legislative debates over four nights of television. Tonight, we're live from our Lakeland PBS studio in Bemidji and we are continuing our debates with the candidates running for District 2B. Karen Brandon from the Democratic Farmer Labor Party and Steve Green from the Republican Party. Our panel tonight features from my left, Dennis Wyman, the News Director for Lakeland PBS, Matthew Libke, the Government Reporter for the Bemidji Pioneer, and Heidi Holton, the News and Public Affairs Director for Northern Community Radio, KAXE, and KBXE. On to the rules for tonight's debate. Each candidate will get three minutes for an opening statement. Our candidates will then begin answering questions from the panelists. Some of these questions will have been crafted by the panelists themselves. Others may come from the public. The order of the candidate's responses will be rotated beginning with opening statements and finishing with their closing statements. Each candidate will have two minutes for each question. Each candidate will also have the opportunity for a one-minute rebuttal. Each candidate tonight will also have the option of a one-minute bonus time to add on to one of their answers. This can be used during the answer to the initial question or during the rebuttal, but it can only be used once. Questions will continue until we are at about 50 minutes into the debate, at which time we will move on to closing statements. Closing statements will be two minutes each. Okay? We are ready to begin. Opening the debate tonight will be Karen Brandon. Karen, your opening statement. Bonjour. Hello. McGwitch, thank you for coming here and thank you for having me here this evening. I want to tell you a little bit about myself. I grew up in a small town, a farming community in Minnesota. I grew up poor. We didn't own a home, but I grew up hunting and fishing with my family. I was lucky enough to get into Minnesota State University Moorhead, Go Dragons. The feds and the state invested in me at that time. I also had a loan and I also worked my way through college. I ended up loving it. I wasn't always treated well because I was poor when I grew up. And when I went to college, I didn't quite understand what my abilities were. So when I got there and I had some really good teachers and really good people in my life that taught me that, I had some abilities. And so I ended up loving it and I went on to get a master's degree. And during my master's degree, I was working four jobs so that I could afford to pay for that degree. And about that time my mother got sick. And I remember helping her issue out her pills from month to month. And at that time I couldn't help her very much, her and my father. And she had trouble paying for her pills. And so I know a lot of people share that experience with me. I got married for 25 years yesterday. I worked different places in the world, Kuala Lumpur, Uganda and I know that I love Minnesota. I know this is my roots and I know how unique Minnesota is. I'm running for office because people have asked me to run for office. And I talked to my friends, I talked to my family and the most impressive person in my life who got me to run was my father. He passed away July this summer but he told me that I should run. I need to run because I'll bring people together and I'll do good things and I'll make change. And so our motto comes from my father. We're going to win and I will win with your vote. Thank you, Miigwetch. Thank you, Karen. Steve, your opening statement. Hi, I'm Steve Green. I serve right now in the state of House Representatives for District 2B. My wife and I, Cindy, I have been married for 40 years in February this coming February. We have six children and soon we will have 14 grandchildren. I live on a place where my grandfather bought it in the 30s. My dad purchased it when my grandfather died in 1968. My wife and I bought it in the early 80s and my son just purchased it from us. We have four generations in the area. We live south of Boston. For most of my adult life, I have run a business. We had a greenhouse for many years where my wife, Cindy, and I raised our kids. We taught our kids to work. In our family, when you were old enough to fill pots or play in the dirt, you were filling pots. And so we come from, we have a good work ethic in our family. And I pass it on to my children and they're passing it on to theirs. And that's what we need in northern Minnesota. We need people who are willing to get out, take some chances, strive for opportunities that are before them, and move forward into the future. And as we, as we've served in the last six years, I think we've made some really good progress in the state. In 2013, when Democrats had complete control of Minnesota, they did huge damage to our state. And one of those was with Minsher. And now this year we've been working, for the last few years we've been working to try to bring those premium costs down. This year had a real pleasant surprise that the premiums will be reduced now in some cases up to 27%. So the people in District 2B, depending on your policy, could see as much of a savings in your insurance premiums of $4,400 and more. So we want to keep continuing to move forward into the future. I hope that you'll look at what's going on in the state today, look at the progress that we're seeing. Also see what's going on in the country with the GDP growth and how important it is to move forward with policies that create jobs and move prosperity to all people. Thank you, Steve. Our first question will come from Dennis Wyman. Thanks, Bethany, and thank you both for joining us tonight and sharing your thoughts on the upcoming election. A big issue in your district is the Line 3 oil pipeline. How do you feel about how the process has gone so far and what would you like to see in the future? Steve, you get the response first. I think the process has been very cumbersome, needlessly cumbersome. We've been working for years on trying to get Line 3 in. It is very much needed. The existing Line 3 can only be pumped at half its capacity. It is a disaster waiting to happen. Also with the increased oil flow, we can get through the pipelines, which by the way is the safest way to move oil. We can reduce some of the congestion on our rails. We have a huge problem with the rail system now. In some areas of my district, you can see that there's railroad spikes coming out of the tracks. They're very taxed. You can't go more than a few minutes without another train going by or an added track to keep the trains off to the side. We also have oil moving by trucks, both very dangerous. I think that the PUC has rightfully decided that there is a need and we need to move forward. I hope that we can move forward in a very quick fashion now. Thank you. Karen? Well, I've actually talked to some pipeline workers about this issue. As I go around, I ask people about the issues that are important to them. Concerning Line 3, some workers have told me that they're aware that we need to move to some different energy sources as we move into the future. We need to transition. As we transition, there are some things that we need to be thinking about. First of all, I want to honor the skill level of our pipeline workers. I don't know if a lot of people know this, but we've had pipeline workers here since the 60s. There might be an argument about who's more skilled with their welding, the nuclear or the pipeline people, but I think our pipeline people hold their own. Offering them these jobs and having these jobs is important, and when people don't have other jobs available to them, they're going to take jobs that might be a little bit questionable for some. We need to honor that process. We can actually, these pipeline workers have told me that they'd like work taking out the existing line before putting in this line. The PUC's decision, there are some big questions about that. I trust our legal system, and there are some legal issues coming in about this and some lawsuits. The tribe, the Ojibwe tribe, I work with them. I talk with them. I spend time with them. I pass tobacco there. They are against the pipeline. I think we need to listen to them. So I would trust the legal system. I would trust our process. I would not ever as a legislator try to prevent that process from happening in the way that it's supposed to, and I think we need to honor that. We need to honor all voices that are part of this. But as we move to more sustainable energy sources, I agree with Steve. This is sometimes a dangerous energy, and because it's dangerous, we need to move to new energy sources and transition in ways that benefit our communities. Thank you. Thank you. Steve, do you have a rubble? Yes, I do. Line three, the existing line would be more dangerous to take out than it is to leave in. It is surrounded by other lines, and as the information that has come before me, pulling that line out could damage the integrity of the existing lines. That is one issue. The other issue is that I also know a lot of people on the White Earth Indian Reservation. I'm a member there, and not everybody in the tribe is against this line three. Not only are they looking forward to the jobs that are going to be created, they expect to hopefully get some training to be working on those jobs. And I have been assured that those jobs would be available for the tribal members. Thank you. Karen, do you have a rubble? Yes, I do. As I mentioned, in working with the tribe itself, they've actually spoke against this line, and you can check on that. There are many places where they've spoke against this line. Of course, people are going to want these jobs because they don't have other jobs available. I guess I trust our legal system, and I trust our tribe, and I trust our people, and pipeline workers themselves have said that actually taking out this line is something that should be done. So I guess I trust our pipeline workers. Thank you. Our second question comes from Matthew Lidkey. Hello, thank you. I wanted to ask about health care. Health care remains a major topic around the region and around the state as a whole and the nation for that matter. I wanted to get your opinion on moving forward with health care. What are some solutions to bringing down costs and also getting your opinion on the idea of single payer? All right. Thank you, Karen. Thanks. Single payer. I'm a fan of single payer. I'm a fan of providing health care to everyone, telling people it's not affordable. Sorry, kid. We can't afford to pay for your broken leg. It's not good enough in me, and that's not the Minnesota valleys that I was raised with. So I'm a fan of single payer. John Marty's written this book. He's laid out this plan for Minnesota pretty cleanly. He talks about cost. He talks about what we can do to prevent higher costs and that it actually is comparable to what we're paying now. Other countries have done this, and we're a failure if we don't do it. Places like Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, I could go on and on. We're smart enough to do this. We owe it to our people. Anything less than single payer just isn't good enough. Steve? I'm not a fan of single payer. I think that Minnesota, if you look back before 2013, when we scrapped our existing policies, Minnesota had the healthcare system that was the envy of the country. We're working towards trying to get back to that, but a lot of damage was done to it. The miniature and the Obamacare were an attempt at single payer. It was designed to move us into a single payer system and it failed miserably, as you can see. Most people that had insurance, their premiums and their deductibles went up so high that they couldn't afford them. Even if they could afford them, they would have never reached their deductibles so they didn't have the insurance that they had in the past. Now that that's been scrapped and they were forced onto the miniature policies, now we have another problem to deal with which is what do we do with the people who now want to buy insurance again and had insurance before and now they have an existing condition that was covered before, now we have that to deal with. When the government gets involved in these things, it ends up being a disaster. Single payer system will be a disaster. Karen, everybody? No, absolutely. I would say that you have a lot to answer for in relation to Israel, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, the Slovak, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. These places have figured it out and I believe in the people of Minnesota, I believe that we can do this together and I believe we want to come together. Those are our values. Anything less, like I said, just isn't good enough. We don't leave children without coverage. We don't leave vulnerable people without coverage. We don't believe that people with pre-existing conditions don't deserve coverage. Healthcare is a right. Thank you. Steve, everybody? Healthcare is not a right. Healthcare is a privilege. In Minnesota, everybody that was here who wanted coverage had it. We had different policies in place and no one was turned away. That's what we had. Now we have people being turned away because they no longer can afford their coverage. It doesn't add up. And the United States and Minnesota are not small countries. They're big countries. And the price tag for this is more than we're going to be able to afford. Thank you, Steve. Heidi, your question. Thank you. Hunting is part of life and the culture of Northern Minnesota and that means many of us have grown up with guns in our lives. When it comes to firearm safety and gun control, what are you hearing from constituents and what do you support? Steve. Hunting is a part of our lives but it has nothing to do with our Second Amendment. Our Second Amendment right is the right that people have to defend themselves against an oppressive government should it ever come to that. That's what the Second Amendment's about. So I love to hunt too. Our Second Amendment, if I can help it, is going nowhere. We're going to defend our Second Amendment to the end. We hear a lot of talk about safety, school safety. We have tried to do many things in the last legislature to move a lot of money into school safety. The school safety policies that we were trying to implement would have given the money to the schools to decide for themselves what they best needed and not a one size fits all. Most of those were vetoed by the governor. Karen. I grew up hunting and fishing in Minnesota on public lands. I just inherited my father's Winchester 30-30. Having guns is definitely a right in my family. The people that I'm talking to have concerns about people who might not be healthy enough to have a gun. There's some danger with some people who are sick and shouldn't have a gun. People at this point have called me about this. First of all, they're surprised that a woman like me owns a gun and now I'm not a good shot so don't take me hunting. I support the fact that people have that right to gun ownership. At the same time, like many other things in our lives, car safety, plane safety, prescription drug safety, we have to build safety features to stop pretending that that's anything less than that. Steve. I don't know what to rebut there. We have the policies in place. We have the background checks in place. If you want to have a concealed carry permit, you have to go to your local sheriff and he has to okay that permit. The policies that we have in place are there and they are working. In the past, in the last few legislative sessions, there was an attempt to expand the gun control issue and one of those, and I think what my opponent is probably talking about was the red flag law that came by and if that is what she's talking about, what that would have meant was anyone could have come and said, my ex-boyfriend is dangerous, go take his guns and on that, they could have removed the guns from you without any hearing, no trial and then you have to prove that you're innocent to get those guns back. That's not our system. Our second amendment is in place for a reason. Karen, did you have a rebuttal? Oh, absolutely. First of all, don't put words in my mouth. I don't appreciate it. It's not appropriate, especially in a debate setting. If you have a question about what I'm talking about, just go ahead and ask me. I'll tell you. I wasn't talking about red flag. I was talking about the fact that there are people who have serious mental illnesses and we as legislators need to take them seriously. We need to protect those individuals from their own illnesses. And if somebody is violence, easy to do background checks. It's easy. We do them all the time for all sorts of things. Jobs, everything. Let's not make this about and pretend that somebody like me, who owns guns, wants to take guns away from other people. I don't think people are going to fall for that trick and believe that. Question from Dennis. What do you see as the predominant transportation challenges for this part of the state over the next few decades and how do you propose that we meet those challenges? Karen's first. Well, you know, transportation in rural communities is a big deal and I think we don't have enough public transportation in our communities. I know the White Earth Indian Reservation has a system that they're working on but they have trouble with it working in the evening. Places like Detroit Lakes. So, looking at public transportation especially for elders and people with disabilities is a big issue. Looking at other types of transportation I'm not sure what the question is it about more cars? Is it about types of fuel? There's a lot of issues around transportation in that form as well and I think we need to move towards more renewable fuel systems as we move forward. But public transportation is something that we could expand and that would help many people in our communities who struggle and tread water financially. Thank you. Transportation is always a huge issue in greater Minnesota. We have the majority of the roads. We have a lot of problems out here. In the past few years we've moved more money into transportation and it has been working and if you see the construction going on you'll see that that's true. We do have bills in place that will be coming back that didn't make it and one of those would be to move more money from the sales tax into our transportation to fund our transportation that way. A lot of talk has been put out there about the gas tax. Not in favor of the gas tax and it won't work for a number of reasons and one of those is that we're getting so high on the gas prices after we hit a certain point in our gas price our economy shuts down. The other is that we're getting less revenue from that as we go forward because cars are becoming more and more fuel efficient. We do have to find other ways to get money into transportation. We're working on that. I think we got some good ideas. We'll see what happens in the next legislative session. Karen, do you have a rebuttal or another thought? Sure. I think that saying that cars are just becoming more fuel efficient relies on people buying those cars and I think a lot of people in our rural communities that's kind of a luxury for them and so giving people support systems to buy those type of vehicles and developing reward systems for those type of vehicles would be really important especially again for people in our communities who are kind of treading water financially. Steve? Well I'm not really sure what you're talking about again if you're talking about buying cars for people, there I go again then that's not going to work and I drive a 2001 Pontiac Bonneville it gets over 30 miles to the gallon that's what I'm talking about. In the years that we've been putting together the cars and the new emissions standards and the car dealers and manufacturers have been doing a better and better job of getting more fuel efficient vehicles and when you're looking at taxing the gas as a sole means of your transportation funding it's going to continue to go down and that's why we want to move to more of a sales tax on auto parts sales. Thank you. Question from Matthew? Yes, I'd like to ask about the opioid crisis as an ongoing issue. I wanted to get your thoughts and ideas that you'd like to bring Paul regarding the opioid crisis and also if you support expanding the access to medical assisted treatment for the opioid crisis. Steve, you're first. Yeah, we have done that and we are continuing to work on that. There have been a number of issues put forward. It's a huge crisis I know that. We all know that and we've been working on ways to attack it. I'd like to see more resources going to local entities. Whenever we try to do something on a state level and blanket the state it never seems to work as well as if we can get them into the small communities where they're having the problems and that's some of the things that we're working on. The other issue is that we don't want to lose sight of the fact that according to my information we have a lot of opioid problem with prescription drugs but still the vast majority of it is coming across our southern border and that's a federal issue and we need to work with the federal government if we can and try to close off that southern border to the drug trafficking that's coming from that area. Thank you, Steve. Karen. You know, one of the things we spend a lot of time talking about are negative things about our communities issues, problems and when it comes to opioids it's a huge issue and it's a huge issue through many types of avenues but I want to tell you something about Minnesota. There's an opioid program there called Moms and it's very successful at treating people with opioid addiction. It's the perfect model for people to look at and it's very successful. So successful that they created a MADS program so the Moms program served women and it was so successful they said we have to have a parallel program to serve men called MADS. They've also started an offshoot of that program in Minneapolis, the same woman who started both of those programs. So today, congratulations, Native Wash, for showing us the way and leading the way and as a legislator I'm going to take these positive programs, these solutions to problems that we've created in this greater part of Minnesota and bring them to other places and talk to people about them. We're not just a drain. We have success here and I'm going to share it. Steve, any other thoughts? Yeah, I will. I'm well familiar with the problems and the solutions that they've had in Native Wash. Talk to the people there all the time in fact and what they've done in the Moms program is amazing and other parts of the state and the country I believe now are coming there and asking for help and seeing what they're doing. The numbers that they've brought for addicted children in that program are staggering for how they've dropped the amount of addicted children coming out of that area and I do believe and that's why I was saying this is the kind of program where if you can get in and fund these things on a local basis where they know the people, they know the problems and they can attack the problems on a personal basis, that's what we need. Karen? Well I'm just curious as to why you didn't bring up the Moms program in the first place. I've never even heard you talk about it and I have a problem with that when legislators don't talk about their own communities and promote the successes in their own communities and that's what I'd like to do and I'm really proud of this program. It's a really important program. Thank you, Karen. Heidi, question. Alright, thank you. The governor convened a panel earlier this week on wild rice and sulfate levels in Grand Rapids and MinPost reported on this. They said the wild rice rule has been one of the state's most divisive natural resource issues so an easy question how do you solve it but what are you hearing and talk a little bit more about water and wild rice. Karen? Wild rice is one of the most important sacred plants to the Ojibwe people. Ojibwe people came here because they were told that they need to go where food grows on the water. That's wild rice. I believe wild rice is covered by treaty rights. I believe that we need to listen to all voices about wild rice. The White Earth Tribe talks about having problems with sulfate. I think we need to monitor it and I think we need to be careful with our precious resources. So in order to solve this we have to make sure that we're not putting too much sulfate in the waters where wild rice grows and that we're protecting the rice as we move into the future so that we don't take away people's choices in the future. If we lose wild rice that's a choice that people will not get to make in the future. We lose a sacred plant. We lose one of the most nutritious items. I mean it's off the scale in nutrition in Minnesota. Steve. And we've done that. And if you look at the regulations that have been put forth on to industry and even now on to communities which I think the regulations on the communities have gone into excess and the wild rice is flourishing and it's flourishing all over. And so the comments that you're making are true but we're dealing with it. Karen, a response? I think there's a real danger right now. I think it is divisive and I think it's divisive because people don't want to deal with it and I think they want to put more sulfate in the water and I don't think our legislature and I'm talking about everybody right now is fighting hard enough to make sure that doesn't happen, period. Steve. Nobody wants to put more sulfate in the water. Nobody wants to do that. We're working diligently on trying to put things in place, reverse osmosis and all these other things that we haven't, that industry has that they're putting in place to protect the runoff that's going into the water and putting, in most cases, cleaner water back into the streams than they're taking out. Thank you. Dennis. Well, as I'm sure you're both aware, there's just a bit of a battle going on right now regarding the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. If confirmed, some think that could result in Roe vs. Wade being overturned which would then put the matter of abortion rights back in the hands of the state. Where do each of you stand on the issue of abortion rights and how would you vote on the issue if elected? Steve. I am very anti-abortion. I am all pro-life all the time. I think that anything beyond a problem with the mother and the child that can be dealt with as a means of saving the mother will be they'll deal with that. That's a personal issue. But that's not to say that the state should come in and okay abortions. And so if I had the opportunity I would vote to end abortion on demand. Karen. Everybody's pro-life. Nobody likes abortion. The realities around abortion, however, are very complicated and real. At a friend, her mom in the 50s got an abortion because she was left by her husband. She was pregnant. She had three kids. She was living in poverty. So she went and had a back alley abortion and she almost died. So will I legislate something that will create back alley abortions and just move death from one place to another? Absolutely not. Will I criminalize 15-year-old rape victims who in a panic go and get a back alley abortion and put themselves in danger? Absolutely not. So until we solve the reality of abortion, meaning if we make abortion illegal it doesn't get rid of abortion. And until we deal with those realities and the types of support systems that we need in place, I think that's dangerous. And let's remember, abortion rates are going down every year because we are learning more about support systems so that people don't have to make those types of choices. Let's approach it with humanity and empathy instead of criminalization. So abortions are going down and I'm very happy with that. But all life is sacred. And to come out and play God and say that I believe that this person should live, this person should die is not for us to say. And by allowing abortion, that's what we're doing. Karen? We just differ on this and we're going to differ on this. Our common ground is that nobody likes abortion. And the reality is that until we build a bridge that's not there. So either deal with the actual reality of it or you legislate and pretend it's not going to exist anymore. Question from Matthew. I'd like to speak on infrastructure a bit. It seems like every year the topic of infrastructure comes up again and again. I wanted to ask if you feel that Minnesota needs a massive infrastructure overhaul both in terms of roads and bridges and also means such as for water and sewer and things like that. Karen? We might have some agreement on this one actually. We do have common ground on some things. I think our infrastructure does need some reworking and I think we need to really take a serious look at not only roads and bridges but other infrastructures that you were talking about. We have had some funding. We have said people in the past who have come to me and said they've come to the legislator for money for pipes and water and sewage and I'm not sure why that denial was there but yes, we have to take a whole hard look at it and then we have to look at what kind of plan that would create and then look at a structure for paying for that infrastructure and keeping that plan fluid and flexible and constant as we move into the future so that we don't run into some of these problems again where we have deteriorating roads and bridges and buildings and issues like that. Thank you. Steve? I have a big problem and I've talked about it for years. I serve in the township for many years and I can tell you that our roads are so needed. They are the lifeblood of us out here and what has happened over the years is because of the dwindling funding and the increased traffic, the increased truck weights, we end up with a piecemeal patch and so we're constantly fixing sometimes the same road just in a different spot and what I would love to do is get a system in place to expand on the corridors of commerce, for instance and do one whole road and get it up to a grade that we can foresee in the future will last for some time and work our way across Minnesota if that's what it takes. For as far as the water goes there are some things that we can do as legislature in particular cases where there's emergency but for the most part our system is set up where the money is appropriated and the agencies decide on a list of priorities who gets the next cash of money and so as you move down that list we then our cities will be upgraded. Problem is a lot of our small cities are not going to be on that list soon enough and so there are things we're going to have to look at to increase the funding to our small cities. Karen, I think we agree on this and I think one of the things I would say is that re-looking at prioritizing which cities are re-prioritizing that list somehow so that cities that are in the worst state would move up the list. Steve? I would say the re-prioritization sounds good but even though for the most part I'm not a big agency fan they do do good diligent work when they look at these infrastructure projects. I know that my own city, Monoman is in desperate need of some funding for their water infrastructure but if you go through Monoman and then you compare it to some of the other towns that are on the list Monoman all of a sudden doesn't look that bad and so they do do good work in this area and so I think the key here is to either find a way to reduce the regulations and bring down the cost of installing the infrastructure which is something that I would really love to do and then try to find a way for a more sustainable funding for it. All right. Next question is from Heidi. Thank you. I want to give you kind of an opportunity to tell us about District 2B and how it could be a place or might be a place where people want to move to or young people stay and maybe start businesses. Have you met people that are doing things that you should tell us about or what's it like out there? Steve, you are first. District 2B is, in my opinion, one of the most fantastic districts in the state. We have everything in this district from farming to resorts to logging to industry and we do have people who want to move back here. We have young families that want to come back here. We have a problem with housing and we have a problem with availability of land here and I deal with the land issue all the time. Some people like public land and some public land is fine but we're getting to a point where we're at a tipping point. Beltrami County, for instance, is right around 90% non-taxable right now and Clearwater County close to 37, Minoamon 25. So where do these people go? When this land disappears from the private sector, the available land that's left, the price increases to a point where you have to be rich to be able to afford it. We need this land back in the area where young families can come buy property, build a home and move back here. We have industry in the area that wants to grow just like the rest of the state now we can see signs almost everywhere help wanted. We need to get families back here, we need to get support for our technical schools, we need to get the trade schools back into our high schools so we can start building for the future for building our community and making it even greater than it is. You know, after traveling, when you grow up in a small town and you don't have a lot of money and you don't really go on vacations and you go on you travel the world, that was my dream, go travel the world and I was able to do that. You know what Minnesota really is when you're doing that, how unique and how amazing it really is. We have some of the most beautiful lakes and rivers and woodlands and forests and farmland and people in our communities would put it up against anywhere else in the world and I've been to a lot of those places. To keep people here, they need a livable wage. To give people a house and some land doesn't give them a livable wage. Public land right now we know offers jobs, it promotes tourism. We have payments in lieu of taxes that counties often get in relation to this. If that system isn't working then improve that system. You don't start switching out all the land because any time you move that land around you can bet you're going to have an economic impact that is unintentional and negative. We all use that public land. We should be promoting it as a way for jobs and livable wages. 500,000 people come to Itasca State Park to they had waters of the Mississippi. I think it's the second most visited park in the nation. It was the second built park in the nation. It's right up there. We should be proud of it, we should be promoting it. There's plenty of this going on in our communities. With technology, things like broadband and improving that, I have a friend who just got a job at Texas A&M. She lives here, she goes there once a month. We need to be promoting those types of processes for people. Our young people want those jobs and they want to live here. People out in the nation want our people to work for them because we have a wonderful work ethic. Thank you Karen. Steve, additional thoughts? Yeah, I do. We have a lot of public employees. We have in some cases they're needed. We have teachers, law enforcement, name it, firefighters. I shouldn't even start listing them because there's so many. The problem is they're all paid with tax dollars. And so if you don't have industry creating private sector jobs, you don't have the money to pay the public employees. And so if you've got people out working public land that money has to come from somewhere. And right now, Minnesota is dangerously close to being one-third non-taxable. That's staggering. It's just staggering. And most of that is in our area, in the northern part of the state. So there's a huge problem and my question has always been whether it's to the DNR or to anybody else who says they like public land, that's fine. Public land is fine. How much is enough? Thank you. Karen? Well, that's my question. How much is enough? So why not develop a plan for these counties and actually put something forward that makes sense to people so people can look at a formula for it? Public land isn't just a drain for tax dollars. People work there, but people also visit there. People buy hunting licenses. People come as tourists. And so if you're going to develop these processes, you have to understand that ripple effect. So I'm not saying that, hey, we should just throw it all away and everything should be public. Nobody's saying that. But let's be careful about how we move forward because our Minnesota values actually really are about bringing people together and sharing. Okay, thank you. Dennis Weiman. How do you feel about the current state of the economy in Minnesota and what would your philosophy be for spurring it in the future? Okay, that would go to Karen. Well, like I mentioned, my friend Julie, who just got a job at Texas A&M, with improvements in technology, we can take our skills here and promote them around the world actually, and tap into an economy that's larger than ours and bring that money home and use that money here. We can build systems so that people have more tax dollars in their pockets for low income people so that they can spend more money in their communities. We have a lot of creative people in our communities. We have a lot of innovative people in our communities. And so building systems that help bring them forward is really important. And particularly I'm thinking of broadband that, having better broadband in Minnesota, and I know the governor has a task force on it, and we're looking forward to more and more of that moving in, is going to be a big deal in rural Minnesota because that technology brings us anywhere we want to go. Steve? We have people who really want to expand in Minnesota. So we have the jobs and jobs are coming, and some of the policies we've implemented in the last few years are starting to bring people back. In 2013 we lost a lot of our businesses. We lost a lot of tax revenue because people fled the state. And the high taxes that are out there drive people out. We need to be able to have a tax system that is affordable, and we need private sector jobs, not public sector jobs. We have the public sector jobs, they'll take care of themselves when the private sector is up and running. When the people move into work then their children will be going to school. That's what we need. Tourism is great. I love tourism. It's a fantastic and crucial part of our area of the state. But if you do the numbers if you want a successful and thriving community, you need families living there. You need kids supporting your schools and people working, and that's what we need. So we need to promote the industry and promote jobs like we're doing now and watch the economy grow. And I think we're going to continue to see it grow. Karen in response? Families aren't going to thrive without a livable wage. We need to make sure those livable wages are there. And I've been reading about some of this stuff that people are saying that people fled the state. Actually that's not true. And I've actually seen some evidence of millionaires who actually didn't leave the state and want to pay more in taxes because they have our shared Minnesota values. Sharing. We come together. A tax system isn't just money. It's about people coming together on purpose intentionally to build communities. It's a beautiful and sacred thing. Question from Matthew. I wanted to ask a little bit about the min-lar's issue. Obviously min-lar's had some issues in the past year. Just wanted to get your thoughts on sort of what went wrong and what can be done to help not allow these types of situations to happen again moving forward with further transitions. Steve? Min-lar's issue was a severe debacle. It started before I was in office. It started in 2008 and it was set up and run by the Dayton administration. We have put over a hundred million dollars into it and it got to the point where we were pushing ten years and they just weren't ready. Some of the private people that they had hired to help them on there told them they weren't ready. Those people were let go and even though they knew it wasn't going to work, they rolled it out anyway. Then they came back and asked for another $43 million. It was just incompetence on the part of the agency. We are looking into it as well as other agencies that have abused their authority and not done a proper job for the people of Minnesota. We need more transparency. We're working on that. Like I said, these are the governor's agencies and for too long they weren't being looked at closely enough. We're continuing to dig into them and we'll keep going forward on it. Karen? I'm looking forward to understanding more about what actually happened there as well. It seemed like a big technological debacle. It is a problem that it happened that way and that it was so expensive and I guess we need to do lessons learned and move forward from there so that it doesn't happen again. Any additional thoughts on that, Steve? I think that pretty much covers it. Thank you. Heidi? All right. Daycare in rural issues has become a prime concern across northern Minnesota. Not just the cost of it, but the lack of it. So how does lack of daycare affect a region and what do you think needs to happen to make it better? Karen? Well, I've been looking a lot at this and I've been talking to some daycare providers and there is some evidence there that some regulations have become a problem for some daycare providers. Also being able to pay more of a livable wage in these communities. And so some people have mentioned to me in communities where there aren't daycares right now. And daycare co-ops can range anywhere from communities or neighborhoods getting together and sharing babysitting time to actually being more formal. If those things are going to work and they're going to happen, we do need to take a serious look at this regulation and I know that there is a process that they're looking at right now for that regulation. So we need to take a closer look at it. Because daycare, one, it provides jobs. Two, it provides safety for young families who need to have good care for their children. And three, daycares provide stability to our communities. Steve. Yeah, the regulations that were pushed forward under the date administration crippled our private daycare. It was, and I believe this, it was done by design. They were trying, they tried to unionize the private daycares that that didn't work and then they tried to regulate them out of business. Our families, not just the daycare providers, but severely hurt by this. I believe that the end goal was to get people into the universal pre-K and have the daycares inside the school systems instead of in the private folks who could watch those kids care for them the way their parents wanted them cared for. And we need to look at these regulations even harder. We tried this last year to pass some bills that would deregulate and give them more authority to move back to the system that was working. But they were vetoed. And so we'll come back next year depending on who the governor is. We'll try to set that back up so that these private daycare providers who love these children, they become like a second family to them and get them back in business. Karen. Yeah, I mean, talking about daycare it sounds like we're getting a little too far into partisan politics and I think extreme partisan politics are pretty toxic. It takes away from the issue. When you're putting other people under the bus you point fingers and you blame, it's really easy to do and it avoids actually fixing the problem. The problem isn't partisan politics. The problem is that daycare is not available. So I guess I'd just ask our legislators to continually focus on that and work together instead of throwing each other under the bus all the time. Steve. We do work together and as far as partisan politics goes it was the Dayton administration that did this and he had a goal and he destroyed these businesses and that's what happened and we're going to try to fix it. All righty. I think we have time for another question here. Dennis? Aside from adequate funding how can we have K-12 schools that produce citizens who are prepared for the world and their future in it? First answer comes from Steve. This is a great question and this is something that I personally have been working on for the last four years because my first two years as in the minority and didn't get any of my bills heard but partisan but no what we need is we need the trades back in the schools. I talk about it all the time. This is we need to prepare our young people for the future we need to give them something to be in school for. I talk all the time to parents who say you know kids not doing well in school is just not motivated and I also talk to law enforcement on this issue and I think that they can combine. Talk to the tribe on this issue as well where if we get the trades back in the schools give the kids something to go there that they're interested in I think we can cut down on crime I think we can cut down on chemical dependency and we can prepare the next generation to be able to hit the ground running when they get out of high school or if they choose to go on to either two or four year schools all these trades and all the abilities that they learn in these areas can help them as well. It's just it's a win-win and this is where we have to move. Karen? This is another area where we have some agreement because we both agree that when it comes to the upper level in school that we should have more trades in the school for students to choose from so that they leave high school and they're better prepared but before we get there we also have to look at when do kids experience problems in school and for example when talking with the White Earth tribe and I was a dean at the White Earth Tribal and Community College for a while we know that boys tend to get pushed out at fifth grade and again at ninth grade only dealing with programs at the junior and senior level we're going to run into some trouble because we've already lost some people so understanding what's going on in our schools who's getting pushed out who isn't succeeding and filling those gaps is what we have to do and our teachers can tell you everything about that we have excellent teachers in our communities. When I was at White Earth we did run a program that brought students from the high school over to the college they started their English class at the high school anybody could take the class at college level brought them over to the college halfway through some students who were going to drop out actually didn't drop out so these programs do work they stayed in their other courses we know we can do it we've got the people here to do it it's just shifting those programs and focusing. Steve additional thoughts? Yeah this isn't just a tribal issue this is statewide but I will say that the White Earth tribe has started an excellent program it's just I think it's going to be an excellent program that we're running where when they start to deal with problems in the family mostly chemical dependency right now but they're going to do family counseling and I think this is the key because you can if there's a problem in a family no matter where they are and you can't expect the teachers to be able to deal with all these problems when the kids go home to the same problems family counseling is crucial in these areas and I'd like to see that move forward as well. Additional thoughts from you Karen I was talking about the schools in our district and that is happening in all the schools in our district and I just like to clarify that so that we're all under the understanding of that process but yeah I think we both agree on how important education is and how important it is to give kids what they need to succeed and we both want to do that. Alright thank you. We're going to move beyond our questions now and move into closing statements so our first closing statement will come from Karen. Well you know when I decided to run people asked me to run because they said you're going to bring people together and I really do want to do that and sometimes in order to do that you have to get rid of people who are obstructing the way but mostly you just have to figure out where's your common ground there isn't one issue that we can't agree on there isn't one problem that we can't solve people talk about jobs look at energy we can bring in sustainable and renewable energy and create jobs as we move into the future and build an energy system that's more secure and we can at the same time give our kids choices in the future around that things like solar, wind geothermal, biomass and we can take the people who are working in industries like the pipeline industry and have them lead the way into those industries it's a solid future it's a safe future you talk to elders they'll tell you to use wisdom to use science to use common sense and that's how I'd like to lead children and the vulnerable should lead our choices to the extreme well that's just extremely toxic I will bring people together phrase E I'm going to support your trail impact funding from an omen I'm going to give it to you when you ask water systems I'm going to support those when people ask the DAC and park rapids wonderful program I'm going to support you I won't hold back from your freedoms I'll help you get them this country this big boisterous brawling imperative restless striving daring beautiful and magnificent country needs us to help it thrive we don't hide behind walls here in Minnesota we bridge them that's a quote from John McCain McGwitch yeah yeah thank you for being here from you that's all closing statement Steve I want to thank Lakeland TV for this this has been a great night always is good to be here before the people and answer questions that they may have and concerns that they have things that I work on a lot and we've mentioned the land and that's very important to me but one of the reasons that it is is owning your own land owning your own home it's the American dream and our government has gotten bloated whether it is in DC or in Minnesota our agencies are overbearing they have gotten way too much power in Minnesota we have over 100,000 rules now that have been made by agencies that never went through the legislative process to you they're still a law and you have to deal with them they can fee and fine you and in some cases without due process and so I'm going to continue to do that freedom is so important to us we talk about our most valuable asset in this state in this country it is freedom freedom that was passed on to us that we need to pass on to our kids you can't lock up someone's future in the legislature we have a rule that you can't do anything that's going to tie the hands of future legislators it's a good rule and I think that we need to expand on that rule and make sure that we ensure we use the same rule when we're talking about our children and our grandchildren but they have the ability to make their own choices to own their own property to do the things that we did as we grew up and those are the things that I'll continue to work for and I ask for your vote in November I want to thank both of our candidates Karen and Steve for agreeing to and taking part in debate night 2018 thank you if you missed any portion of tonight's debates or either of our debates from Monday which featured districts 5A and 5B the full broadcast will be posted on Lakeland's PBS website that site is lptv.org but please stay with us just a bit longer our debate night continues here in just a minute as we reset and get ready for district 2A Matt Grossell from the Republican party and Michael Northford from the FL party thank you everyone for joining us thus far and we'll be back in just a minute