MONROE — Area residents were able to hear firsthand from six of the Democrats running for governor in a pool of candidates against likely Republican contender Gov. Scott Walker when the gubernatorial hopefuls gathered Tuesday for a forum at Monroe Arts Center. 

Candidates Mike McCabe, Paul Soglin, Mahlon Mitchell, Matt Flynn, Kelda Roys and Kathleen Vinehout took the stage to answer questions. Members of the Democratic Party of Green, Grant, Lafayette and Iowa counties each submitted a question that all of the candidates were given four minutes to answer for the crowd of nearly 300.

The focus was quality, whether referring to education, healthcare, infrastructure or election integrity while maintaining a positive economy. 

On roads and internet, Sen. Vinehout of Wisconsin District 31 outlined a budget she proposed in opposition to Walker’s. She mentioned a bill which she created that would fully fund $200 million of broadband expansion and advocated for legalizing municipal-based internet cooperatives to help localities in remote areas establish their own services. She also proposed increasing the gas tax by a nickel and indexing it as well as charging companies about $10 per railroad car to fund road improvements.

Mitchell was also an advocate for increasing the gas tax.

“I don’t call it a tax, I call it a user fee, because you pay more the more you use it,” he said. 

McCabe was the first to propose rural cooperatives for internet, adding that nonprofits could also aid underserved populations. Roys took a different approach, not only embracing cooperatives and nonprofits as an option, but also using private developers to ensure broadband access.

“We can’t thrive, and our businesses can’t thrive, if we don’t have a strong infrastructure,” Roys said.

Flynn also pointed to municipal broadband as the answer to addressing a lack of accessible internet and called on changing state law which makes it illegal for municipalities to set up their own cooperatives. He said he knows the answer to funding road repairs: legalize cannabis. Through a tax yield of roughly $250 million each year, Flynn said the drug could be making money for the state rather than in the hands of gangs.

To keep a balanced budget in the face of providing quality education and healthcare for middle-class citizens, the candidates pointed to programs they found lacking which could help fund public schools.

Soglin, who has served as mayor of Madison for more than 20 years in separate terms since 1973, said Wisconsin needs to elect “someone who understands how to do a budget,” explaining that “we’ve got a governor who sold his soul” when Walker promised never to raise taxes. Soglin said the key will be to create an economy which produces “real revenue and income increases.”

Mitchell said he does not believe state taxes would need to go up, because if Wisconsin gives billions of dollars to Foxconn, the Chinese-based company developing a plant near Racine, the state can manage to budget money for its own citizens. He said workforce statistics at the state level neglect to identify individuals who work more than one job “to make ends meet.”

Vinehout took a different approach in regard to schools. She advocated that the current system of using tax property as a way to fund public schools, which she referred to as “antiquated,” should be replaced with a system in which schools are funded based on the needs of its students. This would shift the funding sources of rural schools, she said.

Roys said the state has the revenue to make improvements rather than focusing on the use of the state economic development corporation “as a slush fund for donors” and corporate tax breaks.

“But budgets are about priorities, and right now, we have a budget that prioritizes the wrong things,” she said.

Each of the six candidates denounced the Wisconsin Parental Choice Program, commonly referred as the voucher program because it allows the use of property taxes in other districts to pay for a student to attend a private school, with the exception of Milwaukee Public Schools and Racine Unified school districts.

When asked about the movement to amend the Constitution to reverse Citizens United, a U.S. Supreme Court decision which dictated that corporations have the same rights of humans and that money is free speech, all of the candidates echoed one another in support of the change. 

Flynn, a longtime lawyer, cautioned against allowing a constitutional convention, however. He referred to the 2010 case as “lawless” and said it “violated 100 years of precedent,” but “opening up” the entire constitution for changes could be harmful if more than one amendment were allowed. 

Vinehout said a proposal she has co-sponsored within the legislature would require the disclosure of campaign contributions, adding that in the few months before the election in November, it is “important to beat big money at the ballot box.”

“If you really want to get rid of big money, vote for the candidate who doesn’t have it,” Vinehout said. 

McCabe proudly informed the group he would not take more than $1,000 in contributions from a single source because he has learned that those funds are generally attached to expectations he may not agree with.

In response to another question, he added that he had taken the pledge not to accept donations from the National Rifle Association. Flynn said as Navy veteran, he did not wish to see “wannabes handling military weapons” and supported strong background checks as did all of the other candidates. 

Vinehout stood apart in her admittance that in 2014, she accepted a campaign contribution from the NRA, adding to the other candidates’ points about hunting being a pivotal part of Wisconsin life. She said living in a home where her father was a strong gun rights advocate and her mother was staunchly against them, both had served in the military, she found that experience helpful in discussing gun control on the state level. Vinehout specified that she supported concealed carry, but not permitless carry, believes in universal background checks and refutes “stand your ground” laws.

Audience member Pat Skogen, of the Wisconsin Farmers Union South Central Chapter, asked whether the candidates would support a statewide moratorium on large-scale farms if elected governor. Flynn said he would prefer to restore local control and enable new Department of Natural Resources staff.

Roys said it was “crazy” to see small dairy farmers selling their cows to work for corporate farms because it provides a better living wage. Soglin said he would prefer the state set minimum environmental standards and set a livestock capacity while also allowing the county boards to increase it if they felt it necessary. Vinehout, who said she is an organic farmer in Buffalo County, referred to the DNR as “woefully understaffed” to handle all of the permitting requests it receives. 

“We need to do everything we can do to put money in farmers’ pockets,” Vinehout said. “We need to go back to focusing on quality.”