Buehler, Goodman-Campbell clash in NewsChannel 21 debate

State Rep. Knute Buehler, R-Bend, and Democratic challenger Gena Goodman-Campbell squared off on issues ranging from the pros and cons of Measure 97 to who’s financing their campaigns during a wide-ranging half-hour debate aired live Tuesday night on NewsChannel 21.

Like two previous debates,, on the sheriff’s race and Measure 97, KTVZ solicited questions from our viewers to ask the orthopedic surgeon and the environmental activist seeking to unseat the first-term lawmaker. Moderator Lee Anderson noted the challenger is the wilderness coordinator for the Bend-based Oregon Natural Desert Association, who led a successful campaign to protect the Badlands east of Bend as a wilderness area.

In his opening comments, Buehler touted his efforts to legislate as he campaigned, “with an open mind, caring heart and thoughtful voice,” working in bipartisan fashion on legislation that widened women’s access to birth control and moved to replace coal energy with clean energy. He also said he worked to help fund expansion of OSU-Cascades “and make affordable housing easier to build in Bend.”

Goodman-Campbell said her background is about working “to bring people together and find common ground” on protecting the area’s natural heritage. She repeatedly stressed a need to invest in education and said people are “sick and tired of living in a community where friends and neighbors are forced out because they can’t afford a place to live.”

Asked about plans to improve the state’s lowly graduation rate, Buehler noted he’s been endorsed by the group Stand for Children and said he backs Measure 98, to boost vocational education and other efforts to keep kids in school.

Buehler said he didn’t believe his opponent had endorsed Measure 98 – but if not, she did so Tuesday night. She also said “we need to start by fully funding schools,” to bring down class sizes and hire more teachers for classes in everything from environmental restoration to affordable home building. But she said she also supports Measure 97 to help meet those needs.

The topic then turned to the state Public Employee Retirement System and a large funding shortfall that is putting a strain on state and local government and school budgets.

Answering a question about how PERS began, Goodman-Campbell noted that in the 1940s, public employees did not have the same retirement pension plans as private business, but that the situation is unfortunately flipped now, with many private employers unable to provide retirement savings plans. And she said she’s glad the state is adding a program for that option.

But despite the “frightening” unfunded liability for PERS, Goodman-Campbell said government still needs to grow and protect public retirement plans so the public sector “can attract the best and the brightest” as teachers, firefighters and the like.

Buehler turned the tables and said the state pension plan has “gone off the rails” with a $22 billion unfunded liability that has “sucked the life out of government.”

“There are solutions out there,” he said. “Unfortunately, the majority party – the people funding Gena’s campaign – don’t want to hear solutions,” and have blocked hearings in Salem on much-needed PERS reforms.

Answering question about Measure 97, Buehler pointed to the state Legislative Revenue Office study that said it would cost every Oregon family an average of $600 a year. He also said it would be a “highly regressive” tax, with no exemptions for things like food or energy bills. And he said it would “put a lot of people out of work.”

“We need to have a more balanced approach,” he said, adding that after two years in Salem, he knows “we cannot just give a blank check to Oregon legislators, with no guarantee the money will go to schools, roads or other purposes.”

Goodman-Campbell said her mother is a retired teacher, and that since the passage of the Measure 5 property tax limitation, she has “seen the impacts of disinvestment in education first-hand,” with some of the largest class sizes and shortest school years in the nation.

“I am tired of the working people in this state shouldering the vast amount of the burden for funding education, health care and senior services,” she said. “I am also concerned to hear Rep. Buehler say we can’t trust our legislators, of which he’s a part, spending this money as voters intended. I will be transparent and accountable to voters, if elected, on how their money is spent.”

Buehler asked to respond and said in the last session, Democrats proposed a $7.4 billion K-12 schools budget. “I voted against it,” he said. “I wanted it to be larger, to be $7.8 billion. Over the last 10 years, while Democrats are in power, the percentage of the general fund going to K-12 education has fallen from 44 percent to 39 percent. If we had 44 percent right now, we’d have substantially more resources in K-12 right now.”

A viewer asked if Measure 97 doesn’t pass, what steps each candidate would take to fund education.

Goodman-Campbell pointed to the declining contribution of corporations to funding important services, due to loopholes and tax credits. “I want to make sure everybody who does business in this state is paying their fair share. Right now, I think individuals and small business owners are paying their fair share. The big corporations are not.”

She also labeled the anti-Measure 97 ads warning of higher prices a “scare tactic.”

“If the costs are going to be passed on to consumers, why are corporations spending so much to oppose the tax?” she asked.

But Buehler said the higher costs to Oregonians are “not just my opinion. It’s not just a scare tactic. It’s the truth.”

He said “there’s money out there” that could be devoted to schools, rather than the controversial business energy tax credits, “which is really crony capitalism” that cost the state $1 billion in lost revenue. And he said the Department of Revenue has estimated there’s $1.5 billion in uncollected taxes and fees, if the agency would work on its accounts receivable.

“Best of all,” he said, would be if the family incomes in Oregon would be raised to the level of people in Washington state (he said Oregon, but an aide later straightened out the confusion) – “if we had that kind of income, it’d bring in $1 billion more to the state budget.”

The next topic was who is funding their costly campaign – Buehler has raised nearly $1 million since last year, reports show, five times that of Goodman Campbell.

“I’m very proud of the way we’ve funded our campaign,” Buehler said, noting he has received over 4,000 donations — nearly 3,000 of them of $100 or less, which he said “shows the broad appeal of the independent leadership I’ve been providing.”

He said that’s in contrast to his opponent, claiming more than 75 percent of her funds come from “Salem insiders, the big unions and PACs.”

“I think we really need to look at where we fund campaigns in the future,” Buehler said, adding that diverse contributions are the key “that allows you to be much more independent, solve real problems for real people, not unions and big corporations.”

Goodman-Campbell responded, “It’s a little disingenuous for Rep. Buehler” to point fingers, as he “forgot to mention the thousands he has taken from interests who are directly tied to the votes he has taken.” By contrast, she said, “a lot of mine has come from groups whose views I share,” from the Oregon Education Association and League of Conservation to Planned Parenthood. “I’ve also received hundreds of small contributions – I wish it were thousands.”

Asked what qualifies her for public office in her first try, Goodman-Campbell said, “I have spent the last 9 and a half years working through the legislative process to build coalitions, find common ground. “

Buehler was asked how much time he can devote away from his surgical practice. He said he’s in Salem for six months during the full legislative session and s a surgeon three days a week at other times, as well as serving on the boards of St. Charles Health System and the Ford Family Foundation. “I have great help, great staff and a very supportive family.”

During her final remarks, Goodman-Campbell told viewers, “I hope the contrast is clear,” and said Buehler had voted against supporting more affordable housing, family sick leave and “funding education at historic levels.”

“Again and again, Mr. Buehler has not been on the side of residents of Bend when we needed him most,” she said.

But Buehler noted that both the right-leaning Bulletin and left-leaning Source newspapers had both reviewed his record and endorsed his reelection.

“That says a lot,” Buehler said, who spoke briefly about how his growing-up years in Roseburg and similar experiences have “taught me Oregon is like a big small town. We know about each other, care about each other.” And he said there’s “much more we can do” to make Oregon “a better big small town.”