Mills, Martin gang up on Brewer at forum

Gov. Jan Brewer’s challengers for the Republican nomination have been attacking her for months at candidate forums across the state, and on the eve of their first televised debate they got a rare chance to take on the incumbent in person.

The four GOP contenders squared off June 12 at a candidate forum hosted by the Paradise Republican Women’s Club. State Treasurer Dean Martin and businessman Buz Mills took a few shots at each other, such as Mills’ criticism of Martin for suing over Arizona’s Clean Elections system while running a publicly funded campaign.

But Brewer, who has attended just one forum since her campaign began, was on the receiving end of most of rhetorical bombs lobbed by Martin and Mills.

Martin and Mills have held fairly even in most polls while Brewer has surged ahead in the past several months, and the GOP hopefuls spent the hour-long forum trying to chip away at Brewer over taxes, illegal immigration and job creation. Brewer, Martin, Mills and former pharmaceutical worker Matt Jette will face each again on June 15 in a televised debate hosted by the Citizens Clean Elections Commission.

While illegal immigration has taken center stage in Arizona’s political theater due, the debate focused heavily on the economic and fiscal issues that have plagued Arizona for the past several years.

Martin and Mills criticized Brewer for pushing a temporary one-cent sales tax increase to balance the budget, saying Proposition 100, which passed in May with 64 percent approval from voters, would add an extra $1 billion to the state’s deficit when it expired in 2014. Jette, whose views were unpopular with the crowd of about 200 people at the Gainey Golf Club, said he was proud to have voted for Prop. 100.

When asked by moderator Bruce Ash, Arizona’s Republican national committeeman, how they would balance the budget when Prop. 100 expires, Martin and Mills said they would make a balanced budget a priority long before then. Both said deeper budget cuts were needed to avoid massive future deficits or additional tax increases.

“The longer we defer the cure, the greater the pain is going to be. We cannot wait three years for this to happen,” Mills said.

Brewer chided both rivals for not answer the question, though she offered no specifics either. She said Martin and Mills were ignoring the fact that Arizona is limited in the cuts it can make to education and health care.

“We are under voter mandates and we’re under federal mandates in areas which we cannot cut,” she said.

Martin said many of those mandates could have been sidestepped if Brewer had not accepted billions in federal stimulus money under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The stimulus act provided Arizona about $1 billion in federal money for K-12 education, but prohibits the state from cutting education spending below the 2006 level.

“All of these mandates from the federal government – don’t take their money and they can’t tell you how to spend it,” Martin said.

In addition to Prop. 100, Martin and Mills hit Brewer for vetoing a bill in 2009 that would have eliminated the state equalization property tax, which had been temporarily suspended since 2006. Brewer responded that the state did not have the money to offset the $250 million loss of revenue.

“The bottom line is they were borrowing money to give a $250 million tax credit. No responsible person would ever do that,” she said.

Martin and Mills urged tax cuts, especially in the state’s corporate property tax, to spur job creation. Brewer said the state has gained thousands of jobs and attracted hundreds of millions in capital investment since she took office in 2009, but her challengers said more must be done. Martin said he supported a Taxpayer Bill of Rights, under which state spending increases would be tied solely to population increases and inflation.

Mills said he would eliminate the corporate property tax and would emulate Texas, whose relative success in attracting jobs during the recession has been attributed by many to a raft of tax cuts and other conservative fiscal policies. Mills, who made millions in the telecommunications business in Maryland and Florida, said his business background gave him a greater understanding than his opponents of how to attract new businesses to Arizona.

“We need to get rid of this onerous property tax that we have and we need to look at what other states are doing,” he said. “The only way we can (attract jobs) is with a responsible taxing program and leadership.”

Brewer’s decision to sign S1070 has been largely responsible for vaulting her into the lead in most polls, but Martin and Mills criticized Brewer for waiting five days to sign the bill, saying she could have promoted the bill and battled misinformation in local and national media that fueled much of the controversy. Jette was the lone candidate to speak out against the bill.

Martin questioned why Brewer has not deployed National Guard troops to the border, which he contended would save far more money than it would cost. Brewer has repeatedly said that Arizona cannot afford to send the guard to the border.

“Is it going to be expensive? Well, that’s a question of how you define your priorities,” Martin said. “I work in finance. I’m willing to spend a few million to save a few billion.”

Though both thanked Brewer for signing S1070, Mills suggested that Brewer is getting more credit than she deserves for signing a bill sponsored and pushed through the Legislature by Sen. Russell Pearce.

“I have to thank Russell Pearce more than the governor because he did the heavy lifting to get it through the Legislature,” he said.

Brewer was resolute in her continued defense of Prop. 100 and questioned whether Martin and Mills’ rhetoric matched their records. She swiped at Mills in saying that running a business is nothing like running a government, and accused Martin of contributing to Arizona’s years of spending increases by voting for three of four budgets signed by former Gov. Janet Napolitano.

“It has not been an easy time to serve as your governor, but we did it. We got it done and I am proud of my record,” she said. “I will not let others define me. … You can look at my record and it will shine above and beyond what some people have implied today.”