By Bill Zeeble
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-884407.mp3
Fort Worth – Citizen asked some tough questions in last night's Democratic gubernatorial debate, produced by KERA and broadcast live, statewide. They asked Bill White and Farouk Shami about jobs and lower utility rates, to name a few. Were the questioners satisfied with the answers? KERA's Bill Zeeble reports.
Margaret Murphy is a single parent who says she left her job a few years ago to raise her child.She's ready to work again, but cannot find a job in this lingering recession.
Margaret Murphy: I have sent out many resumes - and when I got back into it I really believe part of my unemployment to date is I'm viewed as over qualified and my age. What can you do to help people like me?
Former Houston Mayor Bill White said community colleges can help train and retrain workers for available jobs, with a focus on older workers.
White: hat we need to do as we come out of this recession is make sure people like Margaret have the skills, that when people are hired, that she's hired.
Farouk Shami said in his administration, everyone would work, getting jobs in the green industry, building solar panels and wind turbines.
Shami: I'll guarantee everybody's job. I guarantee 100,000 jobs in the first 2 years or I'll give the state 10 million dollars. I'm putting my money where mouth is.
Afterwards, Murphy weighed both answers, and liked White's reponse.
Murphy: It was concise and to the point and specific . It what I look for from politicians because they're so nebulous.
Nebulous is what Murphy called Shami's guaranteed jobs plan.
Murphy: He may be a good business man, but government is a different kind of business.
Vietnam Veteran Elgie Clayton was concerned about the state's rising utility rates. Utility deregulation was supposed to create competition among energy providers, and drive prices down. But Texas utility rates are among the nation's highest. Here's how Farouk Shami and Bill White answered Clayton.
Farouk Shami: My aim, for the state of Texas, within 10 years you won't have an electric bill. We can use our wind and our sun that God blessed us with. Use the 'll use sund and wind we're blessed with . and use solar energy and wind energy. We've got plenty of that.
Bill White: we need reforms in ways we regulate electricity. You can't put the genie back in bottle but at least some of the politicians need to accept some of the responsibility for advertising your bill would go down when it really did not.
Clayton says he liked Shami's answer on solar and wind energy.
Clayton: I know that's the way we need to go. Have them put on our houses, so if we get more energy than we need it'll go back to the grid and they'll be paying us for it. And we need that. When do we need it? We need it now.
Clayton seemed to lean towards Shami over White. He liked that Shami said he would take only a dollar in salary.
Clayton: Whami said he wojldn't gtake but a dollars and that sounds like someone who is serious. And he also said that after 2 years he would pay the state 10 billion dollars if he wasn't getting his program across to the stae and I thought that was pretty good.
Small correction, Shami said 10 million. Other citizen questions involved a moratorium on executions, given recent DNA exonerations. Shami said too many innocents had been put to death in Texas, but he wants a 110 percent guilt guarantee before okaying an execution. Bill White said a moratorium's tough especially on crimevictims and their families. A teacher asked about education funding in this post Robin Hood, but neither answered enough to satisfy the questioner. Most of our citizens remained undecided about Bill White versus Farouk Shami. Primary election day is March 2nd. Bill Zeeble KERA news.