When gubernatorial candidates Tom Corbett and Dan Onorato take the stage for their first debate Monday night, midstate residents will want to hear about two things: jobs and the economy.

Corbett, a Republican and the state attorney general, and Onorato, the Democratic Allegheny County executive, will square off for the first time since the primary at the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry’s annual dinner at the Hershey Lodge.

For Gary Hall, a state worker in the Department of General Services, it's an opportunity for the candidates to explain how they'll help recent college graduates find jobs in an economy in which some workers have exhausted their unemployment benefits and cannot find work.



"That's what I want to hear: how you are going to do it, not that you're going to do it," Hall said about job creation.

Ariel Reed of Middletown said economic concerns are front and center in her mind, too. She said she hopes the candidates talk about how they'll help middle-class Pennsylvanians who are struggling to make ends meet while officials propose raising taxes, fees or city parking rates to balance budgets.



Reed said many middle-class workers have faced pay cuts and loss of vacation days while politicians don't seem to be sharing the pain of lean economic times.

Others hope to hear how the candidates will stretch shrinking public funds as demand for services grows.



Barb Figard, who works for the Dauphin County Area Agency on Aging, said she's concerned there won't be enough money for programs that help senior citizens, whose numbers are skyrocketing as baby boomers reach retirement age.

But while job creation and other pocketbook issues take center stage in many voters' minds, officials and political analysts hope the candidates lay out more specifics on how they will balance the state budget in coming years.



Pennsylvania faces a multibillion-dollar structural deficit next year and a steep increase in the state contribution to public employees' pension plans. Federal stimulus funds that helped fill gaps in many state budgets nationwide will disappear.



"Don't be surprised if all the answers in every area of policy are brought back to jobs and economic issues," said Chris Borick, the director of the Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion. "I expect you will see the candidates continually bring their answers back to jobs and the economy, and rightfully so. That's what the public wants."



But Borick said he hopes Corbett and Onorato also seriously address the state budget deficit.

During the primary, Corbett signed a pledge not to raise or create taxes. But since then he has clarified that the pledge does not bar him from increasing fees if elected.



Onorato has sworn off increasing income taxes or the state sales tax, but he supports taxing companies that extract Marcellus Shale natural gas.

G. Terry Madonna, a political analyst and pollster at Franklin & Marshall College, said he’d like to see the candidates use the debate much as they did their first budget addresses: to lay out how they’ll prioritize programs with limited state resources.

But the candidates' answers could remain in safer, more vague territory.



Corbett and Onorato likely will use plenty of cliches to signal their support for things such as education, the environment and job creation, even though they haven't said they are willing to raise revenue to support them, said David Chambers, a political science professor at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Candidates' debate

The debate will follow the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry dinner.

WHEN: 8 p.m. Monday

WHERE: Hershey Lodge

COVERAGE: Follow the debate live on Twitter with @PatriotNews.

PCN will air the debate live.