By Peter L. DeCoursey
Bureau Chief
Capitolwire
PHILADELPHIA (May 7) – Three candidates trailing Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato by 25 points in the most recent public poll criticized his record and credibility in a debate to be shown on the state’s most-watched TV station.
The Democratic gubernatorial candidates in the May 18 primary are: Auditor General Jack Wagner, Montgomery County Commissioner Joe Hoeffel, Sen. Anthony Williams, D-Philadelphia, and Onorato.
The winner of the Democratic primary will vie in the fall with the winner of the May 18 Republican primary, contested by Attorney General Tom Corbett and Rep. Sam Rohrer, R-Berks.
Both Republicans were also invited to debate by Channel 6, but declined that offer, Channel 6 officials said. Rohrer’s camp said it planned to attend a simultaneous Harrisburg-based debate that Corbett accepted, but Corbett later declined that forum as well.
Williams challenged Onorato the most, but Hoeffel and Wagner also took aim at his record and sought to raise questions about the sincerity of his campaign commitments, during the final scheduled broadcast debate of the Democratic primary campaign. The debate was hosted by WPVI-TV Channel 6 in Philadelphia and the League of Women Voters.
It will be broadcast Sunday at 11:30 a.m. in Philadelphia, and by other stations later Sunday and next week, League of Women Voters officials said.
The four Democratic candidates for governor laid out different ways to balance the state budget with mixtures of tax hikes and program cuts, but each took one or more shots at Onorato.
HOEFFEL V. ONORATO ON ABORTION.
During a portion of the debate where each candidate could ask questions of the other candidates, Hoeffel said Onorato accepted support in his 2007 re-election from groups that seek to ban abortion, but now says he would not change the state’s abortion control law.
Hoeffel said: “Our Pennsylvania abortion law is one of the most restrictive in the country,” and noted he voted against it as a state lawmaker in 1981.
Given Onorato’s current position, past support from abortion-ban-seeking groups, and his support the law, Hoeffel asked: “Does that make you pro-choice, pro-life or multiple choice?”
Onorato has said in his past elected posts, as a city councilman, county controller and county executive, the issue did not arise for him.
Since he began running for governor, Onorato said: “I have been consistent. I support Pennsylvania’s law, and I would veto any attempt to change that law. I support funding of comprehensive education” in schools to help avoid future abortions, and “I support family planning. … I have been consistent, I have been clear.”
Wagner has adopted the same stance as Onorato after supporting abortion restrictions and bans earlier in his career. Williams also supports the current state law, he said, but groups supporting abortion rights have rated him higher for his record than they have Onorato or Wagner.
ONORATO V. WILLIAMS ON REFORM, PENSIONS.
Onorato asked Williams, now that the state is running a deficit, voters distrust state government and the state faces a looming $4 billion pension funding crisis, how does Williams feel about having voted for “pay raises and 50-percent pension hikes. … Do you regret those votes?”
Onorato asked Williams what he would do now to fix them.
Williams said the pay raise had been repealed, “so that issue is resolved,” and pointed out he has backed future law changes to reduce the pension payouts for elected officials and state workers. He said his position on that was clear as well.
He then said to Onorato: “My pension is not as lucrative as yours is,” then accused Onorato of “raising taxes disproportionately, taxing pools, taxing drinks, taxing anything you can find, and having an under-funded pension system.”
Speaking of his proposal to cut future pension benefits for existing and new state workers, and the state pension problem, Williams said: “I solved mine, I hope Allegheny” funds its pension fully “under you as county executive.”
After the debate, Onorato said Williams was wrong. “Our pension fund is healthy and you know why it is healthy? Because I blocked increases” in pensions that state lawmakers proposed for county employees and pensioners, cut benefits for bus drivers and mandated higher contributions, Onorato said. He also said that after his predecessor as county executive reduced employer and employee contributions to zero, Onorato hiked them back up to 6 percent each, to make sure the pensions were fully-funded.
Williams then used his question of Wagner to accuse Onorato of “pay-to-play” practices in collecting campaign donations from fund managers for the county pension fund. He cited numerous media stories, including a 2001 story about when Onorato was county controller, one of seven votes on the board.
Williams said the pension board contracts were no-bid contracts.
Onorato said he now controls only two of seven votes on the pension board, and that all fund managers must be approved by the county consultant before the board can vote on them to award contracts.
Answering Williams’ more sweeping charges of “pay to play,” Onorato said multiple bids were required for contracts, and a review board checked each bid for fiscal and professional reliability. “we have outlawed pay to play in Allegheny County,” he said.
Onorato said to get a county pension he would have to work for the county 20 years or reach the age of 60, while Williams gets his pension after five years.
He also said: “I am the only candidate who has not taken a pay raise in the last seven years.” He also said his three opponents, as current or former state officeholders, “get health care for life, and I don’t.”
Wagner said he did not know the particulars of Williams’ claims and that his office does not audit the county pension system.
But, he said, “the perception and reality of pay to play is a problem, and you have heard me talk about it in this campaign.”
Wagner said he favored consolidating pension plans into larger units, which would not only save money on fund manager and investment costs, but also prevent the kind of issues Williams raised with Onorato.
WAGNER V. ONORATO ON GUN CONTROL.
Later, during a discussion of gun control, Wagner criticized Onorato by name for the first time in the more than two dozen joint debates and forums that they and other candidates have attended.
Wagner said when he was city council president in 1993, he passed an assault weapons ban he wished were still in effect, and said Onorato, then a fellow member of council, voted against it.
Wagner cited a case last year when a man with an assault weapon killed three Pittsburgh police officers. He said if his ban had not been undone by state law, he believed those officers might still be alive. He called for a statewide and national ban on assault weapons
Onorato agreed that he voted against the bill, but said it was in 1992. He said City Council that year was trying to respond to a murder epidemic. When Wagner pushed the assault weapon ban, Onorato said he asked the then-Pittsburgh police chief how many “of the 100 murders we had that year would be prevented by this bill?”
Onorato said the answer from the police chief was “zero,” so he voted against that bill “and worked on things that would actually fix the problem. … Same thing now, running for governor, I support what people say will help resolve the problem with gun violence we have in parts of our state.”
Onorato said he would support mandating that gun owners report lost or stolen guns, that child-proof gunlocks be mandated and that local municipalities have the ability to pass stricter gun control laws than the state can.
Williams and Hoeffel also both supported both of those. Wagner declined to support letting municipalities have tougher gun control laws than the state, saying it was more effective to have state laws or national statutes.
Williams also called for his Philadelphia-centered illegal gun task force to be expanded statewide.
BALANCING THE BUDGET.
Asked how they would balance the budget, Williams said he would require businesses to get certificates of operation, and would not issue those to companies that didn’t pay the previous year’s taxes. That would bring in $1 billion, Williams said. He also said he would cut spending.
Hoeffel said a mixture of tax hikes – including changing the Constitution to allow higher incomes to be taxed at higher rates, and a natural gas extraction tax – and spending reductions were needed.
Onorato backed the drilling tax and the idea of reductions, but neither Onorato nor Hoeffel spelled out any programs they would cut.
Hoeffel, Wagner and Williams all said they supported changing the state’s corporate tax system so that out of state companies would pay more tax, but the rate would be lower for all companies, benefiting companies that located all operation in Pennsylvania.
Hoeffel and Williams said that proposal was viable, while Wagner said he supported it, but “it would be a heavy lift” and was only viable as part of an overhaul of the state tax system, which he said “would also be challenging, but we must get it done.”
Hoeffel said a mixed approach would work best, adding: “The Republicans never want to increase taxes and the Democrats never want to cut spending.”
Wagner said the state could save more than $200 million a year by consolidating its five pharmaceutical purchasing programs, a move the Legislature has resisted.
He also called for competitive bidding for all contracts, which he said would save hundreds of millions of dollars more each year. And he would eliminate more than $100 million a year in lawmaker- and governor-controlled “opportunity grant” programs.
“We can balance this year’s budget this year, the $1.1 billion shortfall, without raising taxes,” Wagner said. “And I have just given specifics.”
FULL-DAY KINDERGARTEN.
Asked how quickly the state could afford to fund full-day Kindergarten, Hoeffel, Williams and Wagner said it should be done as soon as possible, and that it is a high priority for them.
Onorato said he wanted to make sure pre-Kindergarten programs were fully funded first. Once pre-K kids were flowing into the public school system, “that is automatically going to help us increase full-day Kindergarten.”
During the process of ramping up pre-K programs, Onorato said, the state must study, in terms of full-day Kindergarten: “How quickly can we implement it? What’s the cost? I am prepared to look at it, down the road, once the economy turns around.”
One debate question quizzed each candidate on which other candidate would they vote for if not themselves? Only Hoeffel answered, picking Wagner.
Onorato said he would support whoever won. Williams said he would vote for his mother.
Onorato’s campaign said this was his final forum. He will not attend the final Democratic forum that some of his rivals plan to attend on Tuesday.
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