Chris Gabrieli in MA gubernatorial debate on CBS4 news

On Education: Support charter schools: opportunity for innovation & choice

PATRICK: Chris, you’re wrong that I don’t support charter schools. As important as charter schools are and as helpful as they are, we need to come up with a different and better funding mechanism before we raise the cap.

REILLY: Deval, if there was a moratorium proposed by the legislature, to curb any growth in charter schools, would you sign that legislation? I wouldn’t. I think Chris would veto it.

GABRIELI: I would veto it.

REILLY: Would you veto it?

PATRICK: Yes, but listen, we’ve got to be serious about funding. The formula works in theory, but in real life, there are real tensions between real families and that is not community building and that is not advancing ed reform.

REILLY: It’s a matter of giving parents choice, give them a choice.

On Health Care: Apply subsidized healthcare to municipal employees

GABRIELI: Good benefits is an important part of state jobs, it’s part of how people are recruited to it. I think we’re pretty close to the right place. But I will focus on municipal employees; the rate of growth on their healthcare costs is going much faster than state employees. I think that we could sit at the table, not be antagonistic, but sit at the table with collective bargaining, and say we need to get more of this money to work in our classrooms, out on the street in form of policemen and firemen, and so we’ve got to be smart about it. The group health insurance group that represents the state employees, they do some really smart things. I think that that kind of constructive smart approach can be used more broadly.

On Principles & Values: Candidacy based on getting results, not partisanship

GABRIELI: I think that my candidacy was premised on the fact that it’s not really fundamentally about Democrat or Republican, it’s about getting results. I have a record of getting results throughout my career. I have put forward detailed specific plans of how I’ll get results.

• How I will cut taxes, but do it smartly by taking it out of income growth.
• How I will drive the economy by taking advantage of expansion in the innovation economy and investing in those areas that drive new technologies and new fields.
• How to bring down the cost of housing in Massachusetts so that seniors aren’t pushed out of their homes by making our circuit breaker work better to let them stay in their homes.

On Tax Reform: Cut the income tax AND cut property tax

PATRICK: Small wonder people say, give me my money back. But the tax to cut, is the property tax. That’s the one squeezing people, and the only way to do that is to that is to restore state aid to cities and towns. And the only way to do that is to postpone the income tax and invest in ourselves.

REILLY: No one has a right on taxes to substitute your judgment for the will of the voters.

GABRIELI: I disagree with Deval [as saying] “here’s what you can’t do.” I’ve put forward a can-do plan: We can cut the income tax by taking 40% of income growth [towards tax cuts], and leave 40% in there for continuing local aid and investments. But I can hold down the property taxes just as well. I don’t think we should ignore the voters.