Lt. gov. nominees Patrick, Van de Putte face off in sole debate

AUSTIN, TX (KTRK) -- Monday night brought the one and only debate between the two state senators vying for the second highest office in the Texas capitol building, lieutenant governor.

Republican Dan Patrick is a conservative radio talk show host. Democrat Letticia Van De Putte says she's a sixth generation Texan who's a small business owner. Both did agree they are proud grandparents. That appeared all they had in common Monday night.

Most of the debate topics were predictable. Van De Putte criticized Patrick for voting against funding for border security. Patrick responded by saying he did because the funding was inadequate.

Patrick is pro-life. Van de Putte is pro-choice.

The new issue injected into the debate was property taxes. With the boom in jobs and the increase in the oil and gas energy, property appraisals are rising.

While he says it is not a swap, Patrick is proposing an increase in the sales tax to offset rising taxes. He would see property appraisals tied to what he called "population inflation," which would limit how much a home could be re-valued each year to 3 or 4 percent. The legislature, he says, could then decide whether to increase the sales tax rate by one or two cents to offset that. Local jurisdictions would then have the ability to adopt the adjusted sales tax rate.

Van de Putte opposes it.

"It's local governments, school districts, community colleges that set the tax rates. Texas has no statewide property tax," she says. "You'd have to expand the tax base to food, medicine and the sale of homes."

This was the one debate in the race. Van de Putte had asked for five debates. Patrick agreed to one. When asked about why only one televised debate, he said he had gone through several during the highly-contested primary race.

"People know where I stand," he replied.

The candidates for Texas governor will debate Tuesday night in Dallas.