Five candidates running for three different local offices appeared side-by-side in a debate hosted by the West Washtenaw Business Association on Wednesday.

Ryan J. Stanton | AnnArbor.com

Jobs were the focus of an hour-long debate hosted Wednesday by the West Washtenaw Business Association, during which five candidates competing for three different offices took turns answering questions touching on Michigan's struggling economy.

State House candidates Mark Ouimet and Christine Green shared competing views on what the next 52nd District representative in Lansing needs to do to help attract new investment.

Ann Arbor City Council candidates Newcombe Clark and Carsten Hohnke, meanwhile, offered different solutions for the city's budget woes, with Clark criticizing Hohnke's stance against two near-downtown housing developments that promised new taxes.

The odd man out during Wednesday's forum was Rob Turner, a Republican running for the 1st District seat on the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners. Turner, an electrical contractor, appeared next to the empty seat of his opponent, Democrat Adam Zemke.

52nd District state House

Ouimet, a Republican county commissioner from Scio Township, and Green, a Democrat who serves on the Scio Township Board of Trustees, will face off in the Nov. 2 election.

Green said in her opening remarks she's been an attorney for the last 25 years with a focus on civil rights and employment discrimination.

Mark Ouimet

"What's happened over the past five years is that people come to me — they always come to me — after they've lost their jobs," she said. "But now what's happening is I have to watch them not find replacement employment for two or three or more years."

Green said jobs are her top priority.

"What we need to do is make Michigan the best place in the country to start and grow a business, and it's not just a taxation issue — it's a quality of life issue, it's an education issue, it's an infrastructure issue," she said.

In addition to attracting businesses to the area, Green said, the state must help nurture existing small businesses.

Ouimet said he grew up in Ann Arbor around a clothing store that belonged to his parents and grandparents, so he understands small businesses. He said that experience helped during his banking career. He later served as chancellor at Northwood University.

"Jobs is the key to everything," Ouimet said, noting Michigan schools lost 30,000 students in the last academic year. "These are people that left the state of Michigan. And why? Because mom and dad didn't have a job. That affects everyone."

Green and Ouimet agreed public universities will play a vital role in the state's future in terms of job creation. They differed on what to do about the Michigan Business Tax, though.

Christine Green

"I think we need to do away with the Michigan Business Tax," Ouimet said. "One of the things we've learned from this is it's a punitive tax and it's costing our state jobs, and anyone who doesn't see that is missing a great point."

Green worries about doing away with the tax because then "you've got to worry about how you're going to replace all that revenue."

"And I'm not sure that's going to lead to the production of jobs, and jobs are what we really, really need right now," she said.

Ouimet said the state's next leaders need to work on fundamental changes to the state's tax structure to show Michigan is open for business. Ouimet supports Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Snyder's plans for reinventing Michigan and said they'll work well with other ideas coming from groups like the Michigan Chamber of Commerce.

"If we don't have a tax structure that works," he said, "we're going to continue to see the problems we've had in the past. We've got to start looking forward."

For the last two years, Green has served on the township board, where she said economic development has been a key focus. She previously served on the planning commission.

"In about 2006 or 2007, we revamped the entire process in terms of the application process, because we wanted to make it cheaper and we wanted to make it faster for developers, and the feedback that we've gotten is all very positive," Green said. "Now, of course, we have no development, so there are very few applications."

Ouimet, who helped the county close a $30 million structural deficit for the current budget cycle, said he can bring the lessons he learned in county government and in business to the state.

"We've got to put people in positions that understand business, and that's the critical thing," he said. "I've been endorsed by essentially every business organization in this state from chambers of commerce to manufacturing, real estate, up and down the line, agribusinesses, and there's a reason why. Because they understand the importance of getting someone in Lansing that understands business and can act immediately on it."

5th Ward Ann Arbor City Council

Clark, a Democrat who is running without party affiliation, is challenging Hohnke, the Democratic incumbent, for his 5th Ward seat on council.

A third candidate in the race, Republican John Floyd, did not attend Wednesday's debate.

Clark is a real estate professional working on a master's in business administration at the University of Michigan. He has spent the last 10 years heavily involved with civic organizations in Ann Arbor and currently serves on the Downtown Development Authority.

Newcombe Clark

He said the city's potential to grow has been halted by government.

"These are troubling times, no doubt about it," he said. "But that's not an excuse not to move forward. We've got a budget deficit coming up, as do most people, and I fundamentally don't believe that we can cut our way back to profitability. So I think that with my business background, with my civic involvement, and with my desire to do what it takes — not necessarily what will get me reelected — I think now is the time for someone like me to serve."

Hohnke, who has been in office less than two years, said he comes with a background as an economic development professional and small business owner. He said he has stayed focused the last two years on City Council on business issues.

"I've worked hard to expand, for instance, our most expansive commercial zoning designation," he said. "And we've made sure that we've moved forward on development in this area. I'm pretty excited to see the Walgreens going in on Jackson, and we're also making investments in Vet's Park."

Hohnke said the last two years have been challenging, but he and other council members are making sure to manage the budget as efficiently as possible.

"We've cut the budget by over $7 million in the two years that I've been on council, and I think continue to find ways to deliver all of the services we need to deliver to the community as a whole, and to the business community particularly," he said. "We're also making investments in infrastructure, making sure that we have additional parking in our downtown to encourage people to come to the community, improving the Stadium Boulevard corridor."

While the City Council may have closed deficits totaling more than $7 million due to rising costs, city records show the city's general fund spending only dropped from $85.81 million in 2008-09 to $81.45 million budgeted for 2010-11 — a $4.36 million decrease. Meanwhile, total city spending has grown from $260.3 million in 2008-09 to $345.5 million budgeted for 2010-11.

Asked what's wrong with the city's budget, Clark said there's not enough revenue. He said the city has to come up with more money — and instead of raising taxes or fees and increasing parking rates, he prefers to grow the tax base by attracting new development.

"In my private professional life, I've been trying to do that for the past five years," Clark said of bringing new development to Ann Arbor. "I've been trying to build affordable housing downtown. The incumbent didn't find it in the city's best interest to vote for both (projects), but that would have added $450,000 to the city tax base as well as creating 500 new beds."

Clark said he's not advocating any cuts at this point.

Carsten Hohnke

Hohnke, however, said there is room to make cuts, and part of that is seeking concessions from city employees. He said the city also must address its pension liabilities.

"Absolutely, the No. 1 challenge we have in our budget, like a lot of large organizations and municipalities around the country have, are the legacy costs of employees," he said. "Certainly when the economy fell off a cliff in 2008, in the city of Ann Arbor, our pension liabilities were almost completely funded. They're going to start sliding down."

Hohnke said the city's pension liabilities are about 94 percent funded now, but if things move ahead as city officials expect, "we're going to be looking at a $2 million increasing hole every year that we have to make up. There's no question that working with our unions and managing that pension liability is going to be incredibly important."

In addition to cutting those costs, Hohnke said, the city must continue to find ways to consolidate services with the county and other units of government.

"We need to cut our IT costs, our emergency dispatch costs by consolidating services with the county, and we've done that," he said. "We have a combined IT data center. We have a combined community development office. We have a combined emergency dispatch center."

Both Hohnke and Clark said they're against putting a city income tax on the ballot. Clark said he's fundamentally opposed to the idea because it would drive residents and businesses away from Ann Arbor. Hohnke said now is not the time to implement a city income tax, though his comments suggest he's open to reconsidering the idea in the future.

"Let's stop talking about it right now. It would be disastrous," Clark said.

Hohnke said it's important for the city to continue to invest in infrastructure and making improvements to quality of life. He called the more than $1 million a year the city provides to Ann Arbor SPARK for economic development "a really solid investment."

Clark said SPARK is a great promoter of the Ann Arbor area, but the rubber hits the road with the people who actually invest in the city. Clark said the City Council "has no business blocking appropriate development," but that's what Hohnke and a minority on council have done.

"I've had two buildings that had planning staff, Planning Commission and the majority of council's approval, but was still blocked," he said, rattling off a list of problems with the city.

"You have a $90,000 tapping fee just to sprinkle your building," he said. "How is that appropriate? And that fee is there because there wasn't adequate reserve savings for the sewer system. There are a bunch of terra cotta pipes that are out of sight, out of mind, but they're crumbling. And over the past 100 years, because of political expediency, because it's very difficult to talk about saving money for a rainy day, well, those pipes are crumbling and now they're trying to make it up with the people that are actually investing here."

Clark said the council needs people who understand property valuations and investment and know how to get out of the way of business.

1st District Washtenaw County

Turner, an electrical contractor from Chelsea, said it's time to streamline government. Asked where the county can cut its budget, Turner mentioned the prosecutor's office, human services and the county jail, as well as employee wages.

"I think the county's done an excellent job in controlling their budget, but unfortunately state and federal funding is just going to continue to shrink," he said. "We need to go to the grassroots. We need to find out where we can streamline county government more."

Turner said Washtenaw County isn't business-friendly right now.

"I'm in construction. I work with developers, and developers stay away from this area — a lot of them," he said, adding there are too many regulations.

"We had a company who wanted to expand and they were told they had to change every one of their exterior lights because of light pollution. They actually said, 'Well, forget it, we're not going to expand.' It's silly regulations like this," he said.

"We have got to work with state and local governments and the county together to make this region more business-relocation friendly," he said.

He noted in his opening remarks that his company, Turner Electric Service on Baker Road, has been broken into several times, and the catalytic converters have been sawed off of his vehicles. He said he'd look for cuts in the budget to find funding for sheriff's deputies.

The event, moderated by AnnArbor.com Business News Director Paula Gardner, was held at Belmark Lanes bowling alley on Jackson Road.

Ryan J. Stanton covers government and politics for AnnArbor.com. Reach him at ryanstanton@annarbor.com or 734-623-2529.