moderator: and to marvin nelson. on: when people pledge no tax on the state level, what they are really telling you is property taxes have to pick up the difference. any shortage, anything that goes on. that is a really big difference. i remember in the 1970's and 1980's when time after time, it got shoved to the local levels. when you have a responsibility and have to pay for it, and the question is how will you pay for it? are you going to pay for this way, or that way? i have seen in the legislature where people say, "we did our job, we did not raise any taxes." then, the local people had to continue raising taxes. is it sustainable? i don't know. but the present legislature believes it is. i suspect it is not under the current circumstances, but it should be. the state should be picking up social services. you should not get different services are be charged a different amount for social services based on where you live in the state, but that is the situation today. we need to pick up those responsibilities, just

now, our democratic candidate, marvin nelson. >> thank you, dave. we face a difficult time in north dakota. our income dropped precipitously as a state. we went from $12 billion of tax money in the general fund and the oil tax to seven. a $5 billion drop. we have to make adjustments and we have to do them properly. we have to continue serving the poor, the elderly, the people who cannot take care of themselves. at the same time, we don't want to make the mistake of the '80s where we shove all the responsibility and the funding back to the local property tax. we need to have the state step up and take care of the state responsibilities. we need day care for children across the state so people can afford to work and it needs to be quality, safe day care. thank you. >> thank you very much, all three of you. let's start with the questioning. we start with doug burgum. everybody talked about the budget. north dakota is facing challenges in its budget. doug burgum, what would you have done differently if you had been governor? >> i haven't been governor.

the first hour not just a last hour with those limited resources >> moderator: same question to marvin nelson. what was it you have done differently as governor? nelson: in major difference the governor should listen to the people. we have five ballot measures whenever the people decide they voted not to cut income tax but yet the leaders of the majority party continually cut income-tax. the people the instituted a tax the majority party put in the trigger that was excused and they cut the tax. we need the leadership of the state to be willing to listen to the state. riske: one of the cornerstones of my candidacy is to initiate the tradition of the independent audit of state government on the occasional basis or every year with some cases and to identify how to cut the budget precisely instead of the across-the-board cuts we have been doing. it is a reactionary thing where air requires thought in the second thing we need to do is look at higher education and coming out with a steady on that tomorrow and looking to see if there's just one example out of many with the engineering departments. >

our guest tonight democrat marvin nelson. libertarian, and republican doug burgum.s for being here. opening statement. >> i am from north dakota regionally and my dad worked at the record most of his life there were hard working people through the depression. and my mom had a strong intuition she saw the furrows on my brow and it gave me great comfort when she was breast-feeding resistor. i have to exciting ideas for north dakota. one is a way to balance the budget so families don't have to be taxed more and also those opportunities n agriculture the accord to sharing with you. >> our second candidates talk is doug burgum. burgum: i am grateful to have the opportunity to be on the ballot to represent the american one dash the