Editor’s note: Kathleen Falk and Gov. Scott McCallum, two of the six candidates for the November governor elections, recently made stops in Eau Claire and answered these five questions for The Spectator.

Kathleen Falk interview

Why should students vote for you?

Kathleen Falk: Because I am a proud graduate of the university system myself. I have a fantastic 21-year-old son who is a student at the University of Wisconsin. And I think education is singularly the most important investment we can make.

What is your opinion on the budget crisis and its effect on the UW System?

KF: That I have a plan for reforming the state budget so that we’ll have the dollars to fund the university system. No other candidate is offering those kind of plans.

What is your plan?

KF: It’s really complicated and (there’s a) whole lot of pieces to it. One of them is reforming the corrections budget, to free up $100 million. Another part of it is growing the economy and I have an economic plan, which alone, if successful, produces a billion dollars a year in income taxes. And I have supported the cigarette tax and I believe I am the only candidate to do that. That raises revenues to fix the deficit so we can fund education.

What would you do to improve our state’s higher education system?

KF: Boy … make sure we have tuition – keep tuition low and that financial aid needs to grow as tuition rises. To make sure we can continue to keep our best professors and researchers. And continuing to have access to citizens, students all across the state so they have the opportunity for a college education.

Why have you made protecting Wisconsin’s environment a priority in your campaign?

KF: Because I think it’s a priority to citizens all across the state and I have spent 50 years working to protect our environment. So I am …

What’s your stance on the legalization of marijuana?

KF: I think we need to use marijuana for medicinal purposes, I fully support that. I am reviewing and investigating the literature on whether to go further than that.

McCallum Interview

Why should students vote for you?

Scott McCallum: When students are out in the working world, we’re trying to make higher paying jobs for them. As we’ve seen today we’re putting a real focus on that. So, if students want to vote for me, that’s great.

What’s your opinion on the budget crisis and its effect on the UW System?

SM: There are 45 states that are in a similar situation to the one we’re in right now. We need to set our priorities. I don’t even want to look at raising taxes since Wisconsin is already paying some of the highest taxes in the nation. I feel that the UW System’s tradition of excellence will continue, even with the tightening of our belt.

What is your plan to improve the state’s higher education system?

SM: If you look at the building comission of the state budget, a dramatic bulk of it goes to the UW system. We’ve put a lot of effort into those types of programs to improve the system.

What environmental issues do you plan to address?

SM: The McCallum administration has had a great record when it comes to the environment. We’ve recognized landmark Wetlands. We’ve supported purchases to preserve lands. There’s also a high ammount of great tier proposals in the budget. Also, the Brownsfield grants that we’ve talked about today.

What’s your stance on the legalization of marijuana?

SM: I don’t support the legalization of marijuana.

What about medicinal marijuana?

SM: I don’t support the legalization of marajuana, and you can quote me on that.

Falk interview by Nick Sargent, McCallum interview by Lara Luepke