Kansas gubernatorial candidates, from left, Republican Gov. Sam Brownback, Democrat Paul Davis and libertarian candidate Keen Umbehr, answer questions during a debate, Friday, Sept. 19, 2014 at the Ritz Charles in Overland Park.

Overland Park ? All three candidates for governor faced each other Friday during a debate in Johnson County, answering questions about tax policy, economic development, education funding and a variety of issues.

For the most part, though, the major candidates stuck to their key talking points, with Republican Gov. Sam Brownback boasting that his tax cuts are producing economic growth, while Rep. Paul Davis, the Democratic candidate from Lawrence, promised to restore cuts in base aid to public schools that have occurred under the Brownback administration.

Meanwhile, Libertarian candidate Keen Umbehr used the debate to promote his “fair tax” that would eliminate income taxes for everyone and replace them with a statewide consumption tax.

The candidates also tailored their remarks to the Johnson County audience, especially when criticizing each other.

“Representative Davis talks about more money for schools, but he’s not talking about your schools. He is talking about your money,” Brownback said, suggesting that Johnson County as a whole accounts for a large percentage of the taxes paid into the state and therefore helps subsidize the school budgets of less populous, less wealthy areas.

Davis fired back, saying Johnson County has suffered under the education cuts, which he blamed on Brownback’s policy of cutting taxes.

“I talked to a school teacher the other day in Shawnee Mission who told me she’s got over 30 kids in her class and she can’t even get a paraprofessional,” Davis said. “That is not how we are going to grow our economy.”

The forum, sponsored by the Johnson County Public Policy Council, took place just as a new poll was released from Rasmussen Reports showing the race tightening, with Davis now leading Brownback by four percentage points.

An earlier Rasmussen poll showed Davis up by 10 points. It was the third poll in the last week showing Davis with a single-digit lead.

The candidates were also asked about their positions on health care and implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

Health care expansion

Brownback said he opposed the federal law, also known as Obamacare, and said implementing it in Kansas would cost more than $1 billion.

“You haven’t seen the big hammer from Obamacare yet, that’s coming after the election,” Brownback said.

He also argued that if Davis is elected, he would expand Medicaid, and a large share of the $1 billion cost would come from Johnson County.

The $1 billion figure represents the total cost to the state over 10 years. Campaign officials said it comes from a study released in January that was commissioned by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. It includes the cost of insuring those who would become newly eligible if Medicaid were expanded as well as the cost of additional people who are already eligible and are expected to enroll because of new outreach efforts.

Davis has not committed to expanding Medicaid, but he has spoken favorably about it, saying Kansas hospitals are losing revenue by providing uncompensated care for people who could be insured if the state took part in the Medicaid expansion.

After saying that he also believes the federal law has problems, he turned the question around to criticize Brownback’s own health care plan, the privatization of Medicaid known as KanCare. That plan was intended to reduce Medicaid costs through managed care administered by private insurance companies.

Davis argued that program is not working.

“We’ve got for-profit insurance companies that have not met any of the benchmarks that have been set out for them,” Davis said.

When asked about their approach to tax policy, Brownback defended his record of dramatic cuts in income taxes, saying it has spurred economic growth, especially in Johnson County, which he said is attracting businesses from neighboring Missouri because of the lower taxes.

“This is the right direction for us to go, to get that income tax down,” Brownback said.

Umbehr, however, said Brownback’s tax plan is unfair because it allows business owners who receive pass-through income from their businesses to pay no tax, while lower income wage earners still pay tax.

“Our tax policy right now allows 191,000 business owners to pay zero while 1.4 million wage earners pay it all,” Umbehr said.

Davis said Brownback’s tax policies have not produced the economic benefits he promised.

“His own council of economic advisors several months ago documented the state of Kansas is lagging behind the surrounding states in virtually every economic growth indicator there is,” Davis said.

Renewable energy

The candidates were also asked about their positions on energy policy, and specifically the state’s “renewable portfolio standards,” or RPS, which require utility companies to produce at least 20 percent of the electricity they sell from renewable sources such as wind power.

Brownback has at times given conflicting statements, at one time saying he supports the wind industry and the renewable standards, and at other times saying he would also support phasing out the standards. On Friday, he said he wants the industry itself to come to its own consensus on what to do.

“What I have said is I want to see all sides come together,” Brownback said. “And if they come together around some proposal that says we want to do something different, like a tax credit, I could go with that. If they say not, I’m not going to do it.”

Davis said he supports the renewable standards and fought off efforts in the Legislature to repeal it.

“Without RPS, we are sending a very strong message to the wind industry that Kansas is not open for business,” Davis said. “We would be the first state in the country to repeal its RPS.”

Umbehr said he opposes the renewable standards and he opposes property tax abatements for wind towers, saying such abatements rob money from public school districts.