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 State Senator Doug Overbey (right), squared off with challenger, Scott Hughes, in a debate Thursday night.

   Candidates for state representative and state senate met Thursday in a pre-early voting debate at the Tennessee Shindig in Pigeon Forge.

    Incumbent State Rep. Richard Montgomery squared off against his challenger Dale Carr and State Senator Doug Overbey went head-to-head with his challenger Scott Hughes.

  The Overbey-Hughes debate became, at times, more of a sparring match than a debate. Overbey found himself on the defensive against Hughes who chided the incumbent and questioned his efforts to create jobs.

   Overbey worked with other legislators to pass TNInvestco, a venture capital type program intended to create jobs through tax credits and grants. The program has created more than 300 jobs and retained an additional 700 jobs since the program’s inception. Hughes criticized the program because of what he called the high cost of jobs.

  The program cost the state $65 million and received matching funds of $80 from outside sources. Hughes was critical of the fact that each job cost approximately $216,000. In his rebuttal, Overbey explained the state spent only $65 million which would access the cost of each job at $65,000.

  “Government does not create Jobs,” Hughes said. “Government needs to get out of the way.”

  Overbey took the opportunity to mention his role in cutting state government spending in spite of President Barack Obama’s call for state governments to increase their size.

 “The President has said that state governments need to be bigger,” Overbey said. “I have worked to cut state spending by $2.5 billion.”

  Hughes chastised Overbey for allegedly meeting with property developers of Belle Island who were seeking a premier resort status. According to published reports, Overbey reportedly met with developers and allegedly told them he would not support a bill giving the resort a preference which would allow them to sell liquor by the drink, but would find someone who would support the bill. Overbey denied the allegation and said he had been approached several times by developers but rejected their requests.

   Overbey said giving the resort preference would not have been fair to other businesses.

  Hughes responded by referring to Overbey as “An acting senator” and made reference to a story in the Mountain Press in which Overbey stated he had never been approached by anyone representing the resort. Overbey denied the published report and said he had been misquoted.

 Overbey reminded those in attendance that he had voted against a state income tax and had worked to cut taxes. Hughes pledged to further cut taxes and repeal the haul tax in an effort to create jobs.

  Early voting begins today and the election will be held August 2.