Statewide Live; Governor Candidate-Musgrove

A. We. Will bring you face to face with the Democratic nominee for governor next on State wide live. Hello everyone welcome to state wide live I'm John Johnson. In just four days Mississippians will be heading to the polls to elect a new governor. Which candidate for governor deserves your vote. Well tonight along with our copartner the League of Women Voters of Mississippi we will give you an up close look at the Democratic nominee for governor. It is our intent to give you the voter a fair and impartial look at the candidates before the November 2nd general election. Joining me in questioning tonight are two Mississippi journalists. We also invite you to call in your issue oriented questions to our guest at the toll free number on your screen. Well tonight state wildlife program is being simulcast on PR m Public Radio in Mississippi.

We welcome those PRM listeners to our program. We now welcome to state wide live Ronnie must grow the Democratic nominee for governor. Mr. Musgrave is from Batesville Mississippi. And the journalist joining me in the questioning are Charles Donnegan editor and publisher of the enterprise Journal in McComb and Joseph Ammerman political reporter for the Clarion-Ledger newspaper in Jackson. We welcome you all to statewide live. Now we also invited the Republican nominee Mike Parker tonight but he declined our invitation to appear. Mr. Moss Grove Why do you want to be governor. There are two really particular reasons. Once upon St. Jordan those my daughter Carmen right. And while that may sound a little selfish I want them to be able to get a good education and to build a career right here Mr safety and to be quite honest with you. I don't think I'm much different from thousands of other Mississippians across the state. I believe that's what everyone wants is opportunity for our children to be able to enjoy quality of life here in Mississippi.

That's as good as anywhere. I believe that's what we owe as leaders of the said Mrs. it. What specific work and life experiences qualify EU to be governor of the state for four years of lieutenant governor. Well we have prioritized the budget. We have look where we have looked at a plan of action to address the real issues that have faced us in this state. We have done that we have budgeted according to those priorities and to end of those four years we have a 31 million dollar surplus to show for it. In addition we have reduced taxes for major Thailand so that taxes today are less than they were when I took office in 1990. In addition to that eight years in the Senate allows me to know the process of the Senate and the house on top of all of that. Been a father husband of community person. I believe I understand and know Mississippi. That's where my experience is is right here in Mississippi. Joseph.

Well Governor I'm sure that we're going to get a lot into your legislative record as we go on but for now and you have a long range of education issues that you have that you work on. What do you think in your time eight years in the Senate in four years as lieutenant governor he was the most the single most important piece of legislation that you worked on. And how do you see that. How is that affected Mississippi. Joseph There are several cases there and it's hard to reduce it to one piece of legislation. Certainly the new funding formula for education has to stand out as being one that the clay and Ledger mentioned as the most significant piece of education legislation this entire decade. We're the first state in the nation to have passed a new funding formula to help prop the poor districts at the same time not having a court order making us do it. I believe that that has the long term benefit of making sure every child in the state is educated and has the opportunity for a good education. There are a lot of others the Children's Health Insurance Program and many others

that you're familiar with and many of the voters are familiar with. But that one would probably be the one that would stand at that Miss if you had a good education act. Yes and a funny film. Governor shifting gears from education to something the business community is intensely in and person is tort reform. Early on when our Attorney General Moore was going to sit in on him for governor I believe you voiced your strong support for some support for poor performing lightly it's been reported that you've been the recipient of a good bit of money from some trial lawyers. I wonder what your views on tort reform on. Well well first let me say that I ever saved a good bit of money from lawyers have give or save a good bit of money from business people and doctors across the spectrum. And I appreciate their support. At the heart of what I say it was if maybe we get out of balance in the rights of consumers and the rights of business maybe we need to

look at it. It was my thought that we were in balance. But at that request we had a hearing in the same to determine whether we were out of balance. And if we needed to phone. The first person who testified on behalf of the business community said well the truth and that is we don't have a problem. There is just a perception of a problem. What we did while I was in the Senate is we passed major tort reform because in the late 80s and early 90s we were out of St.. We were out of balance. We lowered the statute of limitations. We also passed a joint and several liability of where a defendant cannot be liable for more than 50 percent unless he has a percentage of liability which we also pass the litigation accountability at all of those pieces of legislation allowed us to reduce frivolous claims. And we also passed the litigation accountability which would allow loves that were brought by lawyers that were frivolous to be charged with a cost including the cost of defense. So we have balance as a result of the balance today.

Westinghouse has lived in Mississippi for the third consecutive year as the best state in the nation to do business in the 23 states that they manufacture products. That parallels many other studies and findings show in Mississippi in the top five. I believe that's the kind of business climate we won't and that's when we would work to make sure that we keep so that our people can have an opportunity for good jobs and our businesses can have the opportunity to make good money. So you're saying it's unbalanced man there's no need for any further toward. Well according to all the statistics it appears to be in balance worker's comp insurance is the most reasonable rights that it's ever been. All of those variables tend to add up to saying we're in good shape in Mississippi if at the point in time that it gets out of balance then certainly we need to address. I'm sorry. That's quite all right. I get them confused sometimes. It already was denied that magic were budget surplus has been mentioned and it's come up often in this campaign. And your opponent

Parker uses a figure a figure that varies from around 200 million to two hundred thirty six million dollars. You are consistent in a figure of about thirty one point six million or something like that. That's correct. How do you how are you arriving at your figure for the budget surplus why is he wrong and you're right on this. But because the nonpartisan Legislative Budget Committee at the end of the year said we have a thirty one million dollar surplus. The word surplus I think means to everyone who is looking and listening that that is the additional amount of money we have in the bank. That's over and above what we thought we would that might would be available to Spain. If you look at my opponent's ETS. There is no way you can draw any other conclusion but that there's over $200 two hundred million dollars sitting in the bank that we could use for a tax cut. On the other hand outside of the ads he has say it well he recognizes that half of that went to the education has been fun and I believe he said he would not take that away.

Well if that were the case why do you continue to still tell the people of the state that there's 200 million dollars when you have it made by your own volition that two hundred million of it goes into the education has been fun. So clearly that's a representative representation to the people of the state of Mississippi. That's not exactly accurate. I believe that the best thing to do is go with the Legislative Budget Committee and make sure that we use the proper figures and the right figure it does me any good. Or more importantly it doesn't do the people of the state of Mississippi any good for me to risk misrepresent the facts or to mislead the people. We've got a caller from Jackson let me welcome. Janice thanks for calling tonight. What's your question for the candidate. We're going to bring you really really hard right. Will one of the Mississippi experience distinguish is made from. My experience has been right here his experience has been for 10 years or so in Washington on many

of the debates that we've had on many of the questions that we've answered that his answer has shown that he's out of touch with what has happened in Mississippi. He talks about needing immunity for teachers and we passed that immunity. Since that immunity has been passed no frivolous lawsuits have been filed. He talks about having a career ladder. However we clearly have a career ladder in education. As we continue to talk just yesterday at the NBC for him he said our workforce training Act needs to make sure we have a majority of business people. Once again that's already the law. We ensure that when we wrote that and I wrote that that a majority of the council would be made up of business people. It's a matter of being out of touch with what is happening in Mississippi. As a result it's hard to play and has been put into place good policy when you're not familiar with what's going on. So when asked though Mr. Moscovici is a Mississippian though is he not.

No one would have to that or disagree with that nor would I. Governor Bill miner a veteran political columnist who I'm sure you know wrote a column a couple weeks ago in his words not mine and he described your opponent as a guy with a pleasing voice and no substance. He described you as a rather though melodiously of war state government technocrats and educational specialists. He implied neither of you had a real vision for Mississippi. And just a few sentences could you tell us your vision for this society. But of course Bill has always been able to use words that are over and above most of the rest of us and I appreciate the description of my hard work ethic which is what I believe he would say and yes I did have a vision and I say I have a vision of Mississippi where the streets are safe to walk I have a vision this is a it's a is economic opportunity. Canning should reach every area of our state

both the urban areas and the ruine areas I have a vision in Mississippi where economic opportunity means that there are good jobs where young people can stay here and I have a vision that says health care quality health care would be available in every community across the state. And I also have a vision and say is that I would be nicer than a prison. That's the kind of vision that I believe all of us out. We need a governor to turn that into a plan of action for improvement in our state. I believe that I have that. I believe that I've shown that I believe in working with the legislature and working with the Senate and the house. We have put together a go an objective a vision for what we would do to accomplish that. And over four years we have worked to accomplish that life today. The statistics overall economy are a lot better than they were four years ago. I can't sit here and look at the people of Mississippi and take all the credit for they at that. That would be wrong. But at the

same time have offered leadership to make that happen. And I believe that's what a governor does. The governor's a spokesman for the state. He leads the state. He offers a plan of action to get to a better way of life. That's what a governor supposed to be you can have all the vision in the world. And if you don't know how to put it into place the end you still have not improved the quality of life for our people. You know Governor your friend John Grisham told us a few weeks ago that even as far back as when you all were together and almost Law School that your friends call you governor. And I'm kind of curious and I think maybe a lot of people are curious at what point in your life I mean you served eight years in the Senate you served four years as lieutenant governor. When did you first start thinking about running for governor. And and really I think the most important question is one of I started thinking about running for governor partway through my term as lieutenant governor on a serious basis. The reason being the

governor as I said earlier is a spokesman for the state. I feel like that we needed to do a better job of presenting the image of our state to our citizens. Sometimes our biggest enemy is our sales when it comes to what we have done many times we talk about the negatives of our state but we have so many positives. I believe it's that it's the governor's responsibility to carry that message to the people. Let me give you one example. There was a an academic computation of 780 tains from all 50 states and 20 foreign countries of gene or half or mills goes to the number one academic team and not the country but the world was the Columbus Lee Middle School in Columbus Mississippi. Imagine they at when we talk about education that the number one academic name in the world was right here in Mississippi. I believe we need a governor who will look at the people and tell them the good satisfaction. But we'll also have that image to tell the people outside the borders of our state what a good

state we hailed. I feel like we were not doing that part of the way in my term. Yes but that's when I started to look at running for governor because in addition to understanding how to put a plan of action in place I felt like we needed part needed a person who could convince and say oh there's a safety in and people outside the state to improve the life for everybody because we had most of it was reported to die in the in the newspapers and broadcast media that your opponent. That his campaign had put out about $35000 in the African-American community to community leaders to so-called Get Out The Vote. That's something that the Republicans now believe the present governor has criticized Democrats and pious for. I'm wondering if your campaign has done it or if you point to do that before next Tuesday. We have worked with a number of volunteer groups to raise motorway

interest in voter participation. Certainly I believe that's an objective that we have had and said we would have alone and we've worked with a number of them. Eric Clark has probably done one of the best jobs in his position as secretary of state by promoting the kids voting Mississippi. That's another avenue to make sure that we have more participation by more people. And we would hope that I hope that the comments that were made in the paper today in the comments made by anyone does not in any way keep people from going to vote. We've worked very hard to increase voter participation. Do you plan to pay anybody to oppose. Well you know we have a plan of action that a lot of volunteers have worked in and to get the voters that are on the student. Let's take a call if we could from down in the southwestern corner of the state Naches area. Eric thanks for calling tonight a question please. Yeah I want to ask the governor. Every senator says we have

a shortage of teachers and I are me have students is growing up without qualified teachers in the school. What do you plan to do that then are are your plans for the betterment of last year Mississippi past what what is known as Mississippi critical teacher at it has been looked at as a model across the country. A number of other states have been passed that piece of legislation. What it does is simply the as it offers incentives for teachers to go to two geographic areas where there are critical shortages. Secondly it provides housing incentives tax breaks and moving expenses to go there. This is a way that we need to make sure that we reduce the the teacher shortage but more importantly and probably the best thing we can do to keep our teachers in the classroom and encourage young people to come in to the classroom is to raise the teacher pay to the Southeastern average. Once we get there then we need to look at the national average because outside of the ministry and our parents I don't know

anyone who can more positively affect our young people than teachers and certainly we need to make sure that we pay our teachers to keep them in the classroom. I want to move on back a little bit to we we heard your explanation of the surplus and how we got it at the very end of the session last year and then again another special session. You particularly took some political heat because of the failed tax cut they were presented with and so forth. If there's 31 million dollars surplus in this day right now at what point does the surplus when do we reach a point where a tax cut becomes a viable option. Well it's been a viable option for the last four years. That's why we passed four major tax cuts. The difference is to look at the overall tax code and to look at targeted tax cuts for instance the 10 percent tax cut on income tax did not benefit the retired senior citizens on fixed income because they don't pay income tax. So that tax cut didn't help a group of

people that really made a lot of hail. It also did not help the person who makes $20000 only because they would not getting benefit. What we need to do is look at the entire tax code look at targeted tax cut. And reduce our tax burden on our working families. That's what we need to do. And that would be a one of my first courses of action. One of the centerpieces of that could be reducing the tax on groceries. But we need to make sure that we offset the losses from our cities and counties and that's not an easy task. That's why you don't deal with a subject as complicated as the tax code. Ten days before an election with a politically charged atmosphere. OK. And I have and I've heard that answer before and you yours but your opponents also say that that's a lot of that's a lot of smiles smooth talking for an election year but when you get elected it is back to business as usual and the money keeps coming in and you guys keep spinning it how do you how do you convince us that

that's not true. Joseph. That's why I think it's important to talk about one's record because one's record gives you the greatest indication of whether one is speaking the truth. When I would took office taxes were higher than they are today. We said that we would reduce taxes and we have reduced taxes but at the same time we were able to increase spending on education K through 12 higher education economic development. We have made record investments in health care in our state and at the same time we were able to reduce taxes. Thats a matter of priority. Its a matter of budget budgeting and looking at what needs to be done to make a difference in our peoples lives. Thats the kind of track record that I bring to this race. Thats why I will not say that we would look at restructuring the passcode. My record says yes he's done that. Governor what are your views on term limits for a constitutional amendment on the ballot next Tuesday. Would Charlie as you know the office of lieutenant governor and the office of governor has

term limits. So my answer is not made as a result of any personal gain one way or the other. But I am opposed to the term of it. Referendum that's on the ballot and I will vote against it. And the reason is fair sample of the people ought to be able to make that decision. I would rather leave that in the hands of the people rather than to take away their right to keep someone in office that they feel needs to be there. Many times what happens in a political race or in politics is we hear a lot of rhetoric and we hear a lot of hot air and hear a lot of emotional charges that are not backed up by the facts in the Senate. There 52 members has been for a number of years out of the 52 that were present when I went out in 1998. Forty four of them will be going in January when the new Senate convenes. That's a significant turnover. And all of that was done without term limits. You'll have like a prediction as to how the election's going to turn out to turn the

child of the hypothetical I'm not in your position to be able to answer that about your right to protection on that. So how do you think then that term limits would impact it if there is a turnover there always and what's the difference what's the how would that impact the legislature in any way because the turnover is done with a continuity of maybe. Will you have a turnover every eight years. Of all 52 members you're going to have one no contact to continuity but number two you're going to have people who are not as familiar with the system because in many instances it takes a little pat. I know with in my fourth term if I were called upon to chair a major committee I believe I or anyone else would struggle with that obligation because of the complexities that you face. It's not that people aren't intelligent enough to do it but there's a lot of grass has a lot to handle and if you're going to make good decisions wise decisions then we need at least some degree of experience along the way. What about race relations in this state. There are those who say it it's it has suffered over the

past few years and do you agree with that and what about racial. Reconciliation what you think is needed. Well John I don't know if I can say whether it's better or worse but I will say we missed some opportunities to draw us closer as a state. I believe a governor again is the person in the position that is the spokesman for our state. Much of what he does is the God that our people look to to determine whether we're going in the right direction. As lieutenant governor I try to be fair across the board. That's why I appointed Democrats and Republicans as chairman of committee. I've appointed women and me people from North Mississippi south Mississippi but also appointed a record number of African-Americans and the reason being is we had more than we've ever had and we had competent capable qualified people. I think it's important for people to look and say he is failure. He is on it. He's going to look at qualifications. And if a person is qualified we need to make sure

that we allow them to be a part of movie Mississippi. Quick question from one of our viewers from just sento Robert thanks for calling tonight your question please. Randy good to see you tonight. If you're going to go there what would you do to refer to it. Doing their grocery and their medication. Thank you thank you. I would just say you just said I don't get to go up there real often but ever for the July it's a historic place and we're glad to be there of our senior citizens and our veterans of people that literally have led the way for us to be where we are right now. This is one place that my opponent Noth is a great great. He voted to slash twenty three billion dollars from Medicare. He voted to increase the premiums double the premiums that for Medicare recipients. He voted against increasing health care benefits for veterans in Mississippi what we've done is we've increased the number of nursing home dramatically. But we've also given different

options for long term care for seniors for instance home nursing daycare centers for adults other options for people who would rather not be in a nursing home rather than being confined there. We also doubled the number of Medicaid approved prescriptions from 5 to 10 which is a significant hail to two people who are on fixed incomes and who cannot afford those. Unfortunately governor vetoed that bill will have to take it up. Clearly we cannot move forward as a state with the changing demographics without improving our health care system and making sure that we take care of us saying you got a couple of minutes left with questions going to answers. Hard to imagine this is only a couple of minutes left. You've been a state senator and you've been we didn't go overseas for the last 12 years as a public official. But outside of your service as a public official when Roddie mushrooms in Batesville Mississippi What have you done for baseball that is not publicly not a part of your duties as a public official what community services do you do.

Well I'm a member of the chamber they are actively participate in clean ups are not in just paid for but in Sardis and so it is damage whale because that's a part of another county of very active in the use Lakes those things and it's partially selfish because my children are involved as well. I'm involved in my church. Those are things that I feel are important as a person to make a difference and you can mean how would you answer the bracing criticism that you're a ads have been negative in the last two or three weeks for an answer that my own opponents say it publicly that they were not making. What's going to be the determining factor in this race do you think he may get more votes than alcohol. The determining factor in me is going to Mississippi experience people want someone that looked at the issues and have real solutions to problems that people know. So yes rather than Slick a slick second sound bite with no self. All right gentlemen we thank you for being here tonight I'd like to thank our guests the

Democratic nominee for Governor Ronnie Musgrove Oh. We also thank our journalist tonight Charles Dunnigan from the Enterprise Journal in McComb and Joseph Ammerman from the Clarion-Ledger in Jackson. I'd also like to thank you for joining us tonight and calling in your questions. Please be sure to join us next Thursday night on state by live as we analyze the results of Tuesday's election. You are invited to call in your questions starting at 7:30 on the TV. I'm John Johnson. I was a nice dude.