Minnesota House District 52B candidates Kate Christopher and Matt Dean went head-to-head in Stillwater City Hall Wednesday, when they met in a televised forum sponsored by the Stillwater Gazette.

The candidates clashed on a number of issues, including health care, transportation, and a proposed referendum for the outdoors and the arts, but nowhere were their differences more pronounced than on tax policy.

Like their counterparts in District 56A, both Dean and Christopher said the state will have to cut spending to close an expected $2 billion budget deficit next year, but they were divided over whether tax increases would also be necessary.

Dean, a two-term incumbent Republican from Dellwood, said he would work to hold the line on taxes, which he believes are already too high.

"We need to fund our priorities within our means, just like families at home do," he said. "If your family's like my family - like most families - you look at the spending side first. However, in the last Legislative session, when we had almost twice as many folks on the other side of the aisle as on our side of the aisle, every time there's a priority decision there's a tax increase associated with it. Well, businesses and small families in Minnesota are hurting right now, and they don't need onerous tax increases."

DFL-endorsed challenger Christopher, a longtime Mahtomedi school board member, said she didn't think the state could pare $2 billion from its budget without making significant cuts in vital services, going into debt, or taking money from state reserves. For that reason, she said she would look both at state spending cuts and tax increases for the wealthiest Minnesotans.

"I will be a proponent of raising some income taxes at the higher income levels, because the cuts that have taken place have been at the high income level," she said. "It seems to me that the wealth shift to the wealthy over the last 20, 25 years is something that we need to address, and stop putting all the fees on the middle class, whose incomes have really remained flat."

Christopher said Dean's no-tax-increase stance is in some ways disingenuous, since it only refers to state government, and previous state budget cuts were partly achieved by pushing more costs on to local governments, which then had to raise property taxes to pay for them.

"The reality is when Matt says 'not raising taxes' it just means state taxes. We've all experienced the increases in our property taxes, and fees, and lots and lots of costs added on to our life - including paying for our kids to play sports or be in the school play - so there are costs here that are just being shifted," she said.

Dean countered that the last thing families and small businesses need in tough economic times is another tax increase, the negative impact of which would outweigh the value of any additional revenue it might bring in, he said.

"We need to keep our taxes low. We need to attract businesses here; we don't want to chase them into Wisconsin, we don't want to chase them into South Dakota," he said.

Apart from opposing tax increases whenever possible, Dean said his other major legislative priority has been and would continue to be health care, even though some of his stances on the subject occasionally put him at odds with other House Republicans.

"We should be proud of (the fact that Minnesota has the lowest percentage of uninsured citizens in the nation), but we should move toward a state where we have everybody insured," he said. "Moving forward, we want to do that without moving to a single-payer system, which I oppose. I want to have a free-market approach that puts the consumer back in charge, not the insurance company."

Dean said the state's health care costs are growing at 16 percent a year, which is too much, but he said there are also some areas in which more money needs to be spent, such as on mental- and chemical-health initiatives.

Christopher said she also considers health care a priority, and she would work to improve accessibility to health care.

"There was some great work done last session on the Health Care Transformation Task Force that did come through with some legislation. That legislation was slowly whittled down over the course of the session, but it still moved us in the right direction in terms of creating some systems that will provide more affordability," she said. "In terms of cost and effectiveness, I think we've done a good job."

While health care and taxes dominated the forum - which was sponsored by the Stillwater Gazette, coordinated by Jackie Dubbe and moderated by Marguerite Rheinberger - they weren't the only topics of conversation. Here are excerpts of what the candidates had to say on a number of other subjects:

Transportation

Kate Christopher

I would've supported the ($6.4 billion transportation funding bill passed last year). I'm in favor ... of a pay-as-you-go system. I think it's time for us to quit borrowing against our children's future to build infrastructure, and to repair and maintain infrastructure, particularly. And a lot of the transportation gas tax is going to repair roads and bridges.

It's just a question of maintaining the investments that we have. It's like many things: we kept putting that off. You know, for years and years MnDOT was explaining that they needed more funding, and nobody believed them or they thought they could keep putting off those costs. And then the bridge fell down.

Well, I want you to know that I went across that bridge that day at about 3 o'clock, and my husband came home across that bridge 10 minutes before it collapsed, and it matters to me that we maintain those structures so that people aren't afraid just going to and from work. So yes, I would have supported the transportation tax.

And the other thing, for this local area, is that we've been putting off the Stillwater Bridge for years and years and years, and the reason is that we didn't have funding in place. Matt has blamed the Sierra Club suit, but the reality is MnDOT isn't going to pursue the (bridge) if there's no money in the pipeline to do the project, anyway. So I would've supported the gas tax in order to fund those things and to make sure we stay safe on the roads.

I think there are costs involved with not investing in transit, and one of the huge costs is the wasted time that we all spend in our cars.

Matt Dean

I did oppose the tab tax increase, the gas tax increase and the onerous regressive tax - a $6 billion tax increase that was the transportation bill.

We obviously need to get more money into our roads and bridges, and I voted consistently to try and do that over the past year as our Republican caucus. We had $100 million that we proposed extra in an all-beef-and-no-pork bonding bill to get roads and bridges fixed and put that money to safety. I think that that's a strong distinction between the two approaches.

Also, I have been a vocal opponent of the Sierra Club's lawsuit since 1996. The cost of the bridge has more than doubled, and we have no funding source, no date in sight, from this bill, which was promised to my constituents on the floor of the House. Which I found reprehensible at that time that it was promised to us, 'If this bill is passed you will get your bridge,' and then after the bill passed the DOT came out and said, 'Well, maybe 2024.' I don't think that's fair.

Kate Christopher

There was an article in the Gazette today that the bridge is maybe moving up to 2013, so I don't know what Matt's talking about in terms of not getting movement on the bridge. There's been clear movement on the bridge since the transit tax was passed.

Minnesota Zephyr

Kate Christopher

I would love to see that trail, because it does connect (with the state's Gateway Trail) and it would be beautiful for downtown Stillwater. But given the economic circumstances today - and apparently (Zephyr owner David Paradeau) has priced it awful high - I don't see us being able to get that deal done. It was in an omnibus bill in, I think, 2007 that did not go through. It was not approved by the Legislature to purchase that railway.

Matt Dean

I think the Zephyr has been a great emblem for the city of Stillwater - people think of the Zephyr when they think of Stillwater - so it's going to be very sad to see that go.

But also the promise of a trail connecting downtown with the Gateway Trail, the most heavily used trail in the entire state system- That section, when it is completed, and I think it will be completed, will probably be the most heavily used trail section in the entire state. So it's an exciting opportunity that I think we do need to move forward on.

I'd hate to see that split up to the individual property owners. I survey my district at least once a year; this is a question that I ask. And whether you are for or against taxes or anything, the trail and preserving that trail and that unique opportunity is important to lots of folks in Stillwater and the surrounding area.

It's going to be great for downtown business; it's going to be great for people to want to get out and use the trails. ... It's a great opportunity. I think we need to move forward. And we do have legislation - the DNR bill that we passed last year that I authored - that actually got this designated as a trail.

So I am confident that there is enough public support, and it's a unique enough opportunity, that we can do it and we will do it down the road.

Mr. Paradeau needs to work with the state government, with the DNR, to work with us on finding a realistic way to do that and to pay for it. I think he's a good businessman. I think he understands that he has a great opportunity, and he has a way that he can invest back into Stillwater, because Stillwater has given him a lot, as he has given us a lot. So I think it's a fabulous opportunity and we need to move forward on it.

Sales tax increase referendum for the outdoors and the arts

Kate Christopher

Yes. When I first heard about it, I wasn't in favor of it, because it concerns me. Any constitutional amendments that we make that box in the Legislature I think can be problematic. But as I studied up, I think one of the problems is because we've been short funding on so many issues, those long-term investments in terms of parks and recreation ... the reality is that we haven't been passing omnibus bills that carry that kind of legislation because people have said it's too much money.

And so you have to be able to look at that and say ... yeah, because there are certain things that we can't go back on. ... There are certain things that you have to purchase at the time, because they'll be used up, they'll be gone.

And so we have issues with clean water that this proposal addresses that we need to deal with - we've got a lot of polluted waters all throughout Minnesota. And also preserving land. And I'm an artist, so I would be in favor of that little bit of arts funding that's in there, because I do think that attracts business to this part of the world. It certainly attracted my husband and I when we chose to move here.

Matt Dean

I supported dedicating funds for the outdoors and our environment within our current means. So as the bill moved through the Legislature, I supported an amendment that said, 'Let's focus on the sportsmen; let's focus on the outdoor enthusiasts and bird watchers and folks who want to want to get out into the outdoors. Let's focus on the water and habitat that that requires. And let's dedicate it because we've underfunded it in the past and because it hasn't been properly reflected in the budget as a priority, and it should be.'

So I came to that conclusion, but that means we're not really doing our job, either, if we can't prioritize ourselves in the Legislature. I think that's what we get hired to do, is to make priorities and not to pass the buck back on to the taxpayers and say, 'Alright, if you want this then you have to vote and dedicate it.' That's why I haven't been a big fan of the initiative, of the referendum, in the past.

That was my initial point. Then when we added the tax increase some of our caucus said, 'Well, maybe we could do that this year.' Then, when arts was added and you added the three together it got big enough where it made it able to move through the Legislature, but I think it's probably going to fail at the polls. I wouldn't have thought that right at the end of the session, but since then, with the deterioration of the economy, folks aren't really going to be willing to increase their own taxes.

I would have preferred that they done a no-tax-increase dedication, but this tax increase at this time I think is not going to be well supported by the taxpayers, and that's why I didn't support it.

Differences from party

Kate Christopher

I think I am probably more pro-business than some of my colleagues. I think I have people working in my campaign, for example, who might have opposed the Stillwater bridge. Even when I worked downtown 14 years ago I thought we needed a Stillwater Bridge, and it's only gotten worse. So there are people within my Democratic community that I would disagree with about proposals like that. I think that's probably the best example right now that has occurred during the campaign trail.

Matt Dean

An area where I have disagreed with my caucus and disagreed with my governor is on health care, where I spent a lot of my time.

I am probably a little bit more progressive on some reforms and ready to take that because I've seen firsthand what not having health insurance for families can actually do.

If you've got a child with diabetes and that child goes on and graduates from college, they can't get insurance. So we need to have people with pre-existing conditions have access to health care. If you get cancer, that shouldn't mean that you should be bankrupted.

We as a state have the greatest health care in the world, but we need better access. So I said health insurance companies have to write insurance for people no matter what. I also said that if you have kids, you have to take care of them; part of your responsibility is to provide health insurance. That's a place my governor's not willing to go; that's a place my caucus is not willing to go; that's a place a lot of Democrats are not willing to go. But I've seen up close and personal how this is affecting families in the health care crisis in Minnesota.

Insurance prices, that's an area where I go from them, and I've gotten my shins kicked a little bit.