The candidates for McCracken County Judge-Executive laid out their plans for improving the local economy.
Democrat and former circuit judge Jeff Hines debated independent 2nd district state senator Bob Leeper for over 45 minutes at the Crisp Center on Murray State University Paducah Regional Campus.
The debate was co-moderated by WKMS news director Chad Lampe and Paducah Sun executive editor Steve Wilson.
Current judge-executive Van Newberry is not seeking reelection after two terms.
The candidates debated on subject ranging from a failed attempt to merge the county and city governments, regulation of the Paducah Power System board and the county tax base.
But both candidates agreed that the solution to stemming Paducah's 50 year population loss was economic.
"One of the major industries in this town is transportation," said Hines. "We've got rail, we've got freight and we've got river. And that's going to help us to grow; as the river industries grow, the city of Paducah and McCracken county will grow. And I can tell you, the county's grown in the last 29 years in terms of housing because I've been out there and either there's a lot of vacant houses or nobody's answering the census."
Leeper concurred and said that the government should work harder to draw in new businesses as well as maintain current ones.
"We're dealing with considerable job loss we've had over a period time and the USEC closure is factoring into that today," said Leeper. "We've got to turn that around. And the other thing that we can do as a local government is make ourselves more attractive to look at where we are and look at our tax base, how we're spending the taxpayers' money, try to be as efficient as that, provide the service that we're expected to and gain a reputation for being good to our current employers and I think that will bode well for attracting new employers."
The candidates face off November 4.
