State Rep. J.A. "Doc" Hines and challenger Fred Clark took some steps to differentiate themselves at a candidate forum Monday - at least, when they weren't agreeing on issues.

In vying for the 42nd Assembly District seat now held by the Oxford Republican, both agreed to statewide smoking bans, preventative health care and keeping Wisconsin Supreme Court justices elected. But Clark also tried to position himself as an outsider critical of the Legislature.

Hines pointed out recent Assembly moves such as stemming the Healthy Wisconsin initiative and said he wanted to keep the work going.

In one of the questions posed by the forum's sponsor, the Portage Area Chamber of Commerce, Hines said the state is right to limit small-business taxes and that Clark's plan to raise corporate taxes would lead to increased product fees or layoffs.

"I don't think that's a good idea," Hines said, adding that defeating Democratic moves such as universal health care via Healthy Wisconsin and hospital and nursing home bed taxes will keep overall taxes down. "We would continue along these same lines if I am re-elected."

Clark said some corporations don't pay any taxes to the state and that their ratio compared to individual taxpayers' is "lower than it's ever been."

"The rest of us are forced to shoulder a bigger burden," he said, promoting investment in renewable energy sources and a limit to contracts for companies that outsource jobs out of the state and the country.

The candidates were asked by moderator George Althoff, publisher of the Daily Register, to grade the state's economic policies from A to F. Neither did.

Clark of Baraboo, a political newcomer, owns Clark Forestry, a forestry management and consulting service for landowners, government agencies and nonprofit groups. Hines, a retired veterinarian, has held the seat since 2001.

The district includes northern Columbia County, including Portage, and Marquette County, as well as parts of Sauk and Adams counties.

Hines said he is running for re-election to finish some of the bills he started but were cut short at the Senate level, including a constitutional amendment to stop the Legislature and governor from raiding funds such as fishing license fees to use for another line item, such as balancing the budget.

"It doesn't matter what kind of bill you pass, they can take it," Hines said.

Clark said he entered the race because legislators are taking up the causes of special interest and not looking after taxpayers.

"Respect and compromise seems to be in short supply in our Legislature, and I will bring those back to Madison," he said.

Hines told the crowd of about 50 people at the Portage Center for the Arts that the Legislature is on the right track. He brushed aside Clark's concerns for more public transportation - saying "not everybody buys into it" - and that he has a record of bridging the gap for the district's disparate and sometimes competing interests of farming, industry and tourism.

"We can't do anything alone," he said. "I am proud to have represented these people."

While agreeing on appealing or funding educational mandates handed down by the state, the two disagreed on school funding as a whole. Clark said he wants to see an adequacy-based funding formula to eliminate referendums. Those referendum votes, needed at almost every district in the state that can't survive under revenue caps, are dividing communities, he said.

"We're creating divisions ... where schools should be something that unites our communities," Clark said.

Hines said the state needs to keep providing two-thirds of schools' funding but also take into account the income levels of districts and adjust more funding to poorer ones.

"Especially in the rural areas, we need to take into account energy and transportation costs," Hines added.

Clark also said the state needs to protect working lands such as prairies to mitigate climate change.

"That's something I do every day of the week," he said.

Hines said he was in favor of new nuclear power facilities and wind turbines on the Great Lakes and other renewable energy sources, but to supplement existing technologies.

"We just don't have to automatically say, ‘Well, let's get quit everything else we're using today,'" Hines said.

The election is Nov. 4.

mcall@capitalnewspapers.com

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