By Laura Weber, Michigan Public Radio Network
EAST LANSING, MI –
The five candidates for the Republican nomination for governor met Wednesday night for a debate in East Lansing.
The candidates had heated exchanges over taxes and health care, and argued over whose values are most American.
The candidates also discussed the usefulness of tax credits for businesses in the state. State Attorney General Mike Cox says Michigan has one of the nation's worst reputations as a place to do business.
"We're in a mall of 50 states right now where we advertise that we have the third highest prices in the mall come shop with us' and of course no one's going to come shop at that store, so we have to give those exemptions out," he says. "My plan cuts our jobs tax - because that's what a business tax is - and makes it, instead of the third-worst, the seven-best in the country, and we won't have to give out those exemptions."
Cox is running against venture capitalist Rick Snyder, Congressman Pete Hoekstra, state Senator Tom George and Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard.