 Election Day is about three and a half weeks away and tonight Lakeland Public Television continued its long tradition of providing you a look at your legislative candidates facing off head to head in debates. Our fourth and final night of debates took place in our Brainerd Studios. The Senate District 10 matchup has incumbent Republican Senator Kerry Roode facing D.F. Eller, Tiffany Stingline. One of the topics discussed was the issue over the state's role in providing for our growing population of seniors. Last year we were able to give the nursing home attendants and the workers a 5% raise. That really helped them. It helped in retention of employees. It helped for getting more employees which we're short on. So I think we're doing a good job. We can always do better. You know, Senate District 10 has the most people on social security of any district so we know that we have that coming down the pike. But I think working with our care providers and listening to them as we have, we have several meetings set up already for next week to listen to them and ask them what they need and I think working in a cooperative way that way will get the job done. There is a tiny tax credit on the state tax system or in the state tax system I should say to encourage folks to invest in their own long-term care insurance. I think that we need to front-end some of that and maybe expand that credit, expand the people who are getting their own long-term care insurance. Of course the other option is that when your own finances run out, if you don't have long-term care insurance, then the state ends up supporting your care on Medicaid because we want people to have care. And unfortunately that's going to end up putting a burden on the state but it's one that we need to take care of people. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.