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tv   Inside Story  ABC  October 26, 2014 10:00am-10:31am EDT

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exclusive interviews with both candidates for pennsylvania governor on inside story now. good morning, everyone, i'm matt matt. it is sunday and it's time for inside story we're talking to both candidates for pennsylvania governor, we thought we would let the incumbent go first tom corbett the governor of pennsylvania. thank you for being here. >> i understand you have a few questions. >> i wanted to start with the fact you had a republican-led legislature your entire term. every governor would love to have that. some would compare it to being
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up 30 points before the football game begins. you've accomplished many things, transportation bill, pension reform and state liquor licenses and possibly privatizing them you were not able to accomplish. tell the voters why they should give you another four years to accomplish these things which many thought you would have done already. >> if they go back four years ago i did not campaign on the pension reform, but it became obvious to me we needed to have pension reform in pennsylvania otherwise you'll see property taxes go up and up. my opponent doesn't think we need to do pension reform. he thinks that the reform that was passed before i entered office is sufficient. a lot of people know the property taxes are going up saturday of the need to fix --
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assault of the need to -- as a result of fixing the pensions. >> legislation is not going to change all that much, why she would people think it's going to be a different atmosphere? >> one thing i've learned in harrisburg, is you don't get done in the first term what you want to get done, i've gotten done and the legislature and i work very well and in some stances bipartisan work and in other instances, republicans. i would refer people to tom corbett.com to take a look at the report card. in harrisburg it takes sometimes two, three, general assemblies to pals bills. what i am going to do this time
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around is call for a special session on pensions, not just state pensions, municipal pensions arrest in trouble, too. i have a lot of first class cities, reading is the closest one. the legislature needs to take this on and be responsible in time future of the state of pennsylvania as it pertains particularly to our children and grandchildren what we're going to leave them. that is fixing a pension system and working on it in a bye a bye bipartisan way. >> your opponent says he wants to raise state income tax for wealthier people. he hadn't given a range. you've endured your own criticism for uncapping the oil
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franchise tax imposing a national gas impact fee, how is that differently not being for the coming he not going to raise taxes how much and you doing that. >> let's talk about him not answering confess, he won't tell you how much he is going to tax. his plan if you look at it, we've counted up $6 billion of additional spending. he said he is going to tax the natural gas industry a billion dollars. >> why don't you do that? >> let's stay on topic. >> the other $5 billion will come from the taxpayers of pennsylvania. he won't tell them how or how much. we estimate the the commonwealth foundation estimated that he would have to raise tax, 188%. 188%. because he can't change the constitution in four years it takes more than four years if he can change it at all which means
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getting the legislature to agree with him two different times and get the pop populous of pennsylvania to agree. >> what about the fees going up. >> you're all over the place here. >> i want to talk about your record. >> when i came into office i did not run on transportation. but when i came into office we had a problem, public safety problem, 31,000 school buses a day carrying 1.5 million children. we have 1.5 million computers in pennsylvania. both rely on better roads and bridges and better funding of mass transportation. what we did, we eliminate the the gas tax, the static gas tax at the pump. the state 12 cents a gallon at the pump. >> yes, that's correct. >> we eliminated that and we
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uncapped an artificial cap that was placed years ago that gasoline will never go above 1.25. twenty above 1.25 we were losing revenue about that, take that away it floats, if wholesale goes up, with he good more revenue fit goes down we get less revenue. we're rebuilding roads and repaving roads and bridges that come in, and putting money into mass transit. septa will be a resipt -- recipient of that, i think if you broke it down 2.50, five years from now, a week of additional revenue that's like a cup of coffee at starbucks or something like that. we'll have better roads and bridges which is attracting business also that's important to ray track more revenue to pennsylvania more businesses
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more jobs to pennsylvania. we did all that with just a little change and last time i looked i was in philadelphia this week, i saw gas for 3.055-gallon. it's 50 cents or 70 cents lower when that bill passed. >> education this is another thing we're not going to resolve. your opponent said you reduced spending you said you had a deficit when you came in and the federal stimulus dollars ran out and you kept education at a right or higher as you went forward through your term. whatever the case may be what happened, school districts have suffered and fallen on hard times across the state in particular philadelphia. why she would they schools districts think anything will get better with you remaining in office if four years. >> plelts -- first up, let's talk about what the problem was,
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ed rendell reduced it replaced it with federal money. sated do not put this into your operating budget even though they put it into their operating budget. that money went away june 30, 2011 my first fiscal year started july 1. i did not have that billion dollars of federal money. could we have raised taxes that would have been $930 for a family of four. $1,200 every year thereafter. >> could school districts expect better? >> let me finish. what happened the school district's put that money in it went away. they had a decision they had to make. most importantly you have to look at what's the cost drivers. number one, it's the pensions. their contribution to the pension system has to match the state's contribution. each school district is contributing. if you talk to a school board member they will tell you three main items, special education
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funding, cost of healthcare, and pensions continue to skyrocket. and will continue to skyrocket until we get a fair funding formula. in pennsylvania today we spend more money on education k through 12 than anytime in the history of pennsylvania state tax dollars. many people don't notice this it was asked of my opponent in the first debate if you combine all five hundred school districts with federal, state and local taxes it is 27 billion-plus dollars a year can -- k through 12 education. he was asked, was that enough money. he said i don't know. representative from montgomery is heading up a commission on what is is fair funding formula. 253 members of the general assembly there will be 253 version of what is fair funding as to what they see in their
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districts. from my prospective i have to look at statewide what is fair to the city of philadelphia, washington, pennsylvania, to a school district in elk county. because it's going to vary. do we measure it on how many dollars we should give per child should be the same across the state or should it be different across the state. there are many factors that have to be resolved. there's no quick simple answer to that. the number one driver right now we have to fix the pension system. >> you have one more question, they call it porngate, that's the name they have for it. you have not been involved whatever is in anything, but as attorney general of the state, some people in your office were, do you regret that do you feel responsible for that as the leader of the office. >> i'm extremely disappointed in their actions had someone sent me one, it would have
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stopped. >> some people say it's the culture. you wouldn't have wanted that to happen. >> there was not a culture of that. what there was people made mistakes, when you say there's a culture there are hundreds and hundreds of additional people in that office that didn't do anything like that. you're going to take all of those other people because of a handful of people that made a major mistake that's unfair. mr. wolf and his wolf pack they want to talk about it as a culture. he had a problem when he was secretary of revenue. he was there when they found out about it, he was able to deal with it. if i had found out about it whistles there, i would have stopped it right then and there. >> thank you very much. your opponent is u
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>> we're back on inside story talking to the candidates for pennsylvania governor, joining us governor corbett's opponent tom wolf. thank you for being here. >> thanks for having me. >> let's start out if you became governor you'd have to deal with a republican ledge legislate -- legislature, doesn't look like it's going to change. governor corbett had trouble getting his way with the republican legislature, would you be less ambitious with what you'd be able to accomplish in four years that can't get along with its own party. >> there's a sense of crisis that transcends parties in harrisburg. people are looking for change. they are looking for something it's a more transformational. so i think given that crisis
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atmosphere, there is an inclination to work across the aisle to get thinks done. i'm not going to get everything done i understand that, but i'm going to be ambitious, i'll work hard with the legislature. i'll have to work with members. late late tur and -- legislature and work with citizens to get things done. if i do that, i think there's enough appetite for real changes to actually get something done. >> you are the former revenue secretary under governor rendell so understand revenues and you proposed a tax plan where you would like to make the progressive as opposed to the income tax where wealthier pennsylvanians would pay more, and you said the cut offs would be 70 to $90,000 for single
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filers, you haven't told anyone how much more the i happen crease would be for people that would see higher taxes could you at least right now state all right i'm going to cap it at 10%, 15%, 20%. >> it will be less than that. >> reporter: no i can't. >> it will be less than 10%. >> yeah. >> reporter: less than 5%? >> i don't know. here's why i resisted on being specific on that. him i've been specific on who's going to benefit. if you're making 70 or less than $90,000 you'll get a break on the income tax. that's a picture of the fair taxation. i want to reduce property tax and corporation tax. i've talked all the things in the context of fairness. i want to give the middle class a break they haven't had in taxes for over 20 years.
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i want to do that kind of thing. i can't be more specific without being dishonest. i don't have access to your personal tax information that's confident. >> governor corbett said he has given you information. >> even with access to the information 2012. 2013 and 14, they were short $200,000. i don't know how deep the hole that's been dug. we'll have to look at this real realistically. things are not working. i don't know what i will be confronting when i get to harrisburg. i don't want to mislead people
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by being dishonest. i don't know how cold the winter is going to be. >> accuweather has projections. >> the marcelus shale tax you're talking about 5%. governor correspond -- corbett is afraid pennsylvania may lose jobs if you tax them at 5%. >> listen i built a business twice i'm as sensitive to tax issues as anyone running for public office. 5% taxes is not going to deter companies from coming to pennsylvania in the gas industry. the gas is here. the market it's here. we are where they want to be at a modest 5% tax is not only not going to deter them, i think
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it's going to create a partnership between the people of pennsylvania and the industry that will help the industry do i want it to do to be a game changer for our economy. the last thing we need is a gas industry that is disengaged from the economy of pennsylvania that all they are doing is taking this resource is sending it to other places and turn it into good jobs. we need those good jobs here, we need to be a good partner with the gas industry. 5% severance tax is a partly of that strategy. >> this is the battle between your opponent education and what the governor's record is and what you want to do. it's very inside baseball and you agree that, but he believes you're distorting his record. he said that he actually raised the state's contribution to education spending but it had to
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come because governor rendell who you used to work for used federal stimulus money to add to it and the federal stimulus money in the end had to go away because it was temporary so therefore, governor corbett said no, mr. wolf, i didn't cut education spending i increased the state's contribution. >> that's twisted logic. maybe i'm simple here, but the year before he became governor, the budget he inherited had $6.4 billion for three categories for what i think is classroom basic education accountability block grab the grant and charter school reimbursement. in his first year that went down to 5.$3 billion. 89 argument that the stimulus money dried up, that wasn't his fault. we could have an argument over whether it was because tax
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revenues dried up because the stimulus wasn't there, whatever. he dropped in his first term in the budget with his name on that budget over a billion dollars. we're down $580 million in these three categories. if you don't believe the numbers, we have 27,000 educators who have been laid off. programs cut, property taxes have gone through the roof. all those things are part of the reality that pennsylvanians see, you can twist the logic whatever way you want, the reality money was cut from education for classroom funding it's not back to where it was when he came into office. >> you weighed into the philadelphia education crisis you say you support eliminating the school reform commission and allowing the residents of philadelphia to elect school boards which is done in all other school districts across the state. how would that be better than
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the way it's working right now. >> here's my argument, i believe in local control. we have local control in every other school district in pennsylvania, but philadelphia. i think and this is not a knock on the good people in the src. i think they are trying to do the best they can in a tough situation. my argument is that if we funded the school district of philadelphia properly, we really ought to do that and allow for local control. for many people the src is the kid pro question -- kid -- quid pro quo. i'm from york county. if the children in philadelphia don't get a good education, chances are diminished that i am going to have a good life that many fewer people who may come up with a cure for cancer or
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develop new technology to make my life richer, i want them to get a good education in york county. i meant philadelphians to get a good education and elk county to get a good education. if the src goes and the funding and the support from harrisburg goes, that's the case, that's bad thing. >> you want like to decriminalize marijuana laws? >> that's correct. >> and washington you're 18 and smoke marijuana, do you see pennsylvania being in that laboratory. >> washington and colorado we have a laboratory to watch it there. >> you have the law the way it is, what do you tell your children when you don't want them to do drugs at all. >> i think you tell them the same -- i'm not proposing we legalize recreational marijuana i'm for decriminalizing
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marijuana and medical marijuana i'm not for legalizing marijuana i'm for decriminalizing marijuana. we have this prison pipeline too many people who make mistakes when they are young we break up families and destroy lives and don't do good things for the economy. did he criminallation could be a -- decriminalization could be a step in moving us away from the prison pipeline. >> let's talk about the death penalty you called for a moratorium if you become governor, what do you tell the victim of -- tell the family of a victim of a murder.
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>> someone who commits a heinous crime has to be punished. the question i have is the death penalty an appropriate punishment in a civilized society. torture it's not the deterrent we want it to be. and it seems to be implemented unfairly. we have a bye as who gets -- whef a we have a bias who gets e death penalty. if i am governor i want want to make sure every punishment we have in the criminal justice system is appropriate. >> final question would you vote for someone as governor who never had elected political experience? >> yes. >> that describes you. >> the only qualification and the highest qualification that we ought to have endo have in
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this society is elected office is citizenship. i am citizen of this commonwealth and i would vote for me. >> tom wolf democratic this is ceo tom macarthur's world. in macarthur's world, he opposes new laws to ensure women receive equal pay for equal work. and macarthur opposes a woman's right to choose backed by a group that would outlaw abortion even for rape and incest. for us in the real world, aimee belgard. aimee will fight for equal pay and protect a woman's right to choose. aimee belgard's on our side. i'm aimee belgard and i approve this message.
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>> i would like to thank governor tom corbett the republican and his democratic challenger tom wolf for being here on inside
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