SANDPOINT — Tuesday’s candidate forum got to the heart of matters pretty quickly for candidates seeking to keep or attain seats in the Idaho Legislature.

One of the first questions posed to all candidates, including those running for seats on the Bonner County board of commissioners, was their position on proposed PacWest Silicon smelter south of Newport.

Incumbent Republican House Rep. Heather Scott and Democrat Ellen Weissman found rare patch of common ground in that both are strongly opposed to the industrial proposal. Scott is recommending a more rigorous review under national environmental protection laws rather than the state of Washington’s public review process and argued the Idaho Transportation Department and Idaho Department of Environmental Quality should be going to the mat for Idaho’s interest.

“Crickets from them,” Scott said of the state agencies.

Weissman, meanwhile, believes developers of the smelter chose this area for the project because of its clean air, which provides PacWest with a greater emissions budget.

“It’s a disaster,” said Weissman.

Jim Woodward, a Republican who’s running against Democrat Vera Gadman for the District 1 senate seat, said he still has an open mind about the smelter proposal. Gadman did not attend Tuesday’s forum at the Sandpoint Library.

Incumbent GOP House Rep. Sage Dixon said he shares some of the community’s concerns over the proposal, but is reserving judgment for the time being.

“I don’t like to operate purely off of emotion,” said Dixon.

Dixon’s Democratic challenger for the Position B seat in the House, Stephen Howlett, said he’s flatly opposed to the smelter proposal. Howlett said prevailing winds would deliver pollution to Priest River and Bonners Ferry.

“I would bar any access from the Idaho side,” Howlett said.

State candidates also differed on Medicaid expansion.

Woodward saw expansion as an answer to people who don’t qualify for Medicaid, but who also cannot afford insurance.

“I have met a lot of people who fallen into the gap,” said Weissman, who supports expansion.

Scott opposes expansion because it will drive up health costs even higher.

“What it does is allow more people on the dole,” Scott added.

A similar division is evident in House B race.

Howlett is an ardent advocate for Medicaid expansion, while Dixon opposes it. Dixon blames the gap on the Obama administration.

“There was no gap population before the Affordable Care Act,” said Dixon.

Howlett said expansion will ease the strain on county indigency budgets.

“It’s the right thing to do for working people that can’t afford it,” Howlett said.

On the matter of public schools funding, Woodward said additional money on its own isn’t a standalone solution to the issue.

“We have room for improvement, but we’re not at the bottom,” said Woodward.

Scott maintained that too much money was being wasted on studies, testing and administrative bureaucracy.

“We need to pay teachers better and we need to have smaller classrooms,” said Weissman.

Howlett said school districts do a good job with the apportioning the money they receive from the state, although more of it needs to make it to the districts.

Dixon said the Legislature has made commitments to better compensate teachers and pointed out that 65 percent of the state’s budget is devoted to public instruction.

“We’re working on a new funding formula,” added Dixon.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.