Governor Tom Corbett and Democrat Tom Wolf faced off in their first debate of the General Election Monday night at the Hershey Lodge in Dauphin County.
The candidates took on education, taxes and the economy.
Their first topic of discussion was education.
Wolf claimed Governor Corbett made cuts to it, while Corbett argued Wolf can’t lay out a plan.
Corbett said up to 40% of the budget now goes to schools.
He says he also has a plan to evaluate school and teacher performance.
“It is clear that he doesn’t want to talk about statistics, that the cut to education occurred in the administration before me,” Corbett said.
He then called on Wolf to give specifics when it comes to his education plan, but when asked to name a number as to how much money should be going to education, Wolf said he didn’t know.
“We can do a better job than we're doing,” Wolf said. “I know you can't throw money at any problem and expect a good outcome but you can't keep dis-investing in it either.”
As for taxes, Corbett says his record should speak for itself.
“We're in a much better position than we were when I took office. No more 4.2 billion dollar deficit; we eliminated that, no more reliance on one time money from the federal government to balance our budget,” he said.
Wolf said he wants to cut taxes for the middle class, but raise taxes on some; calling for a fair tax system.
“As a citizen I look at my state and I don't like the report that the Auditor General and State Treasurer put out last week,” Wolf said. “I don't like the cash balances that seem to be deteriorating.”
The candidates also covered the issue of minimum wage.
Corbett said he wants to stick to the federal minimum wage and doesn’t want to raise it.
Wolf, however, says he wants to raise it to $10.10 an hour.
The two candidates will face off again on October 1 at a debate in Philadelphia.