Squaring off Friday night in the first gubernatorial debate of this election season, just about the only thing Congressman Mark Green and incumbent Jim Doyle had in common was the color of their neckties.

Fielding prepared questions from the audience, Doyle and Green sparred for an hour and painted very different pictures of Wisconsin's economic health — Doyle focused on the progress that has been made, Green on the challenges facing the state.

Talking taxes

Wisconsin's tax burden was a hot topic throughout the evening, with Green calling a lower tax burden "the key to keeping our businesses here at home.

"We don't have an abundance of good-paying jobs," he said. "As long as that tax burden continues to increase, it's going to scare away jobs."

Green also said the state's tax burden is driving away young workers.

"The fact is that if our college graduates stay here in Wisconsin, then they will earn 10 percent less and pay 10 percent more in taxes" than the national average, he said.

"We need leadership that breaks down the barriers that holds entrepreneurs back," he said. "We don't have a people problem. We can create jobs with our people. We have a leadership problem.

"Governor Doyle may be the only person in the entire studio who thinks taxes are OK," he said.

Doyle dismissed the charge.

"(Green) keeps saying that I think taxes are just fine, and obviously I don't," he said.

He said he has taken steps to reduce taxes in the state, including signing what he called "the tightest property tax freeze in the history of the state."

"My focus is to make sure we are reducing taxes on hard-working, middle-class families that are trying to make a go of it in Wisconsin," he said. "As a percentage of income, our taxes have gone down."

But he also said he has refused to cut spending at the expense of education.

"The kind of cuts that Congressman Green is talking about would devastate education in this state," he said. "We can't have property tax payers always at war with families who want to get their kids a good education."

Making 'the hard choices'

Balancing the budget was another issue, with each candidate disputing the other's assessment of the state's bookkeeping.

Doyle said he inherited a record $3.2 billion deficit when he stepped into office, and helped turn it into a balanced budget.

"There's no governor in the history of the state who knows more about cutting budgets than I do," he said. "We cut state spending by over $600 million."

Doyle said he would "continue to find the efficiencies in government" to alleviate spending.

Green agreed that Doyle inherited a deficit, but "the problem is, we still have one."

He said Doyle's claim of a balanced budget was a product of trying "to paper over the deficit" with creative accounting — an assertion Doyle flatly refuted.

"The fact is, we have balanced the budget," Doyle said. "The congressman's just wrong when he tells you we haven't."

Doyle said Green's role in passing national budgets that have included massive deficit spending reflects poorly on the congressman's fiscal record.

"They haven't made the hard choices in Washington," he said. "We have made the hard choices in Madison."

Green said he has voted against "two-thirds of all the spending laws that came across my desk since I took office."

He said he would focus on "rooting out the waste in government" to trim state spending.

Staying on message

Janet Boles, professor of political science, said the candidates were "both carefully scripted" in their responses during the debate.

Green's heavy focus on the state's tax burden and Doyle's repeated references to the distinction between politics in Wisconsin and politics in Washington illustrated a strong adherence by both candidates to their central talking points, she said.

"They kept to the message," she said.

She said that unlike 2004's presidential debates, in which high expectations were established for John Kerry as a skilled debater, neither candidate carried a reputation into Friday's matchup.

"There were no pre-debate stories about how either Mark Green or Jim Doyle had a record of high school or college debating skills," she said. "I'm not so sure there were expectations."

She also said the debate was only one way for the candidates to get their message out to voters.

"Voters learn far more about the two candidates from their paid political advertising than they do from public service reports such as debates," which many find dry and time-consuming, she said.

The debate was sponsored by We the People/Wisconsin, a nonprofit organization that "aims to reconnect citizens with public life" through town hall meetings, issue forums and candidate debates.