Conn. gov candidates talk taxes in live TV debate

The two major-party candidates in the governor's race continued their sharp criticisms of each other during a debate Tuesday night, each accusing the other of planning to raise taxes and misrepresenting the other's record.

Republican Tom Foley and Democrat Dan Malloy exchanged barbs in the studio of NBC affiliate WVIT-TV in West Hartford in the final live, televised debate before the Nov. 2 election.

Foley, a Greenwich businessman and former U.S. ambassador to Ireland, said it's still not clear how much Malloy will cut from the state budget to reduce Connecticut's projected $3.3 billion deficit for the next fiscal year. He said Malloy's plans would require a $3 billion tax increase, or $2,000 per family in the state.

"We simply cannot raise taxes on working families," Foley said. "It will hurt the economy. It will cost us jobs."

Malloy, the former mayor of Stamford, shot back that what Foley was saying just wasn't true.

"I want to be very clear. We're not raising taxes. That's the last thing we will do," Malloy said, quickly adding that he would raise taxes as a last resort to protect safety net programs for disadvantaged people.

Malloy later said he has no specific number for spending cuts, saying all options are on the table.

Connecticut's projected $19.1 billion general fund budget for 2012 is predicted to be $3.4 billion short.

Malloy said Foley's plan to cut $2 billion while not raising taxes could end up affecting aid to cities and towns, which Malloy said would lead to property tax increases across the state.

Foley disputed that, saying the extra $1 billion needed to balance the budget in his plan would come from federal aid that Connecticut has missed out on and extra income tax revenue from new jobs he would bring to the state as governor.

Malloy said he doesn't want to raise taxes but can't make a promise like Foley has. Malloy said he doesn't want to be like past governors and make promises he can't keep.

Foley, Malloy and independent candidate Tom Marsh, who wasn't invited to Tuesday's debate, are vying for the seat being vacated by retiring Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell.

A new Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday showed Malloy leading Foley 48 percent to 43 percent among the likely voters surveyed. Malloy had led Foley by 7 percentage points in the university's Oct. 15 poll. The sampling margin of error in the new poll was 3.7 percentage points.

Malloy also rehashed issues raised last summer during the primary campaigns when he brought up Foley's two arrests years ago. He said Foley lied on federal security clearance forms for the ambassador's job and a Bush administration position in Iraq when he said he'd never been arrested for a felony.

Foley said he addressed the issue earlier this year.

"Why you're bringing this up now is a little confusing," Foley said.

Foley was arrested in 1981 in connection with a car accident and in 1993 on a breach of peace charge involving a dispute with his former wife. He says the charges were dropped in both cases.

The Hartford Courant reported that the 1981 arrest involved a felony attempted assault charge, but Foley said he didn't recall the actual charge and said he would have answered "yes" on the federal forms if he had known the charge was a felony. He said his answers on the forms were truthful.