AUGUSTA — The race for state Senate District 15 pits two-term incumbent Republican Sen. Roger Katz against relative newcomer Democrat Rebecca Cornell du Houx.

Katz touts his experience and hopes he has gained the trust of district residents through what he describes as his bipartisan work in the Legislature.

“I hope I’ve earned people’s trust and people see I really do try to work across party lines to solve the very real challenges we are facing,” Katz said. “I grew up here and am honored to have the opportunity to help make it an even better place to live. My dad was in the Senate for many years, and I watched him get a lot more done working across the aisle. And I’ve tried to do the same thing.”

Cornell du Houx, meanwhile, said it is time for the fresh new working class perspective she could bring to the Legislature as a member of the military and a former social worker.

“I think people deserve to have a candidate who will put the work in and stand up for what they believe in,” she said. “I’m passionate about being able to empower people and being able to make a difference at the legislative level. I’ll listen to what people have to say.”

Cornell du Houx said the most important issue facing the state is the need to bring more jobs and small businesses into the state, so when Maine students graduate, they are able to find a job in a profession that will provide a livable wage.

She said making it more affordable to go to college could help provide employers with a well-educated workforce. She suggested creating a program that could give Maine college students help to pay their tuition if they agree to work for an in-state nonprofit organization after they graduate.

“We need to keep younger people in the state, and train a workforce in a profession they’re interested in,” Cornell du Houx said.

Katz also sees jobs and the economy as important issues but said a bigger-picture challenge lies in Maine’s status as the oldest state in the country. He said as Maine’s population ages, there are fewer young people supporting more older people. He suggested tax incentives to encourage people to move here and start businesses that could help bring a better balance.

“I think that’s the central challenge for our generation,” Katz said of the state’s aging population. “If we don’t do something to turn that around, it’s going to be very difficult. We need to look for ways to keep our kids in Maine, encourage migration from other states and encourage and incent migration of well-educated, English-speaking immigrants. We need to become a more welcoming state. So if there is a Ph.D., an engineering graduate from Purdue, she or he will think of Maine as a great place to start their career.”

Katz said legislation he would introduce, or more specifically reintroduce, would include a tax reform bill he helped to craft that would reduce the income tax rate, increase the homestead property tax exemption, and broaden and increase the sales tax. He said those changes would help ease the tax burden on Maine residents by lessening reliance on property taxes to raise revenues.

“One of the things I think holds us back in Maine is our antiquated tax structure which relies far too strongly on the property tax,” Katz said. “I think we need to try to shift as much of the tax burden as we can to non-Maine residents, whether that is those who own second homes in the state or those millions who visit us each year as tourists. Maine has a fairly low sales tax and a fairly narrow sales tax. To the extent we broaden that, it lessens the reliance on property taxes and thus lessens reliance on those who live here.”

Cornell du Houx said she would introduce legislation to have the state accept federal funds, which current Gov. Paul LePage has previously refused to accept, to expand MaineCare to help provide affordable healthcare to more Mainers in need. She said in her work as a social worker she has seen people seeking services they need be unable to get them because they lacked healthcare coverage.

She noted accepting the federal funds would likely prompt new recipients of MaineCare benefits to seek healthcare, which, in turn, would help the state’s economy and help provide more jobs.

Cornell du Houx also said she’d support a proposal to provide healthcare to elderly residents in their homes.

Katz said he sponsored a compromise bill last session which would have expanded MaineCare coverage but would have ended that expansion when the federal funds no longer covered 100 percent of the costs. That bill was approved by legislators but vetoed by LePage.

Cornell du Houx said she strongly supports increasing the minimum wage.

“Hard-working people deserve a chance to make ends meet by earning a livable wage,” she said. “We need to raise the minimum wage to allow for this. Many EMS responders and healthcare workers, who are providing services to help the community, do not receive the adequate funds they deserve.”

Katz, who voted against a 2013 bill that would have increased the minimum wage to $9 an hour, said he’d be open to a “modest” increase in the minimum wage with potential exceptions for students and seasonal workers.

Both candidates said the state should restore to previous funding levels revenue sharing funds to municipalities that the state has cut in recent years.

Keith Edwards — 621-5647

kedwards@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @kedwardskj