Republican Gov. Sam Brownback has trumpeted his massive tax cuts benefiting the wealthiest Kansas residents and businesses as a red-state model for the rest of the nation to follow, but on Monday he is likely to face questions about whether the reductions have actually harmed the state’s economy and its schools during his third debate with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Paul Davis.

The televised debate at KWCH studios in Wichita will be followed by a fourth and final debate Tuesday before the Kansas Association of Broadcasters meeting.

The back-to-back appearances come amid recent independent polling that shows the governor’s race has tightened outside money from Republican groups has flooded into the state with negative ads against Davis.

Davis is wooing moderate Republicans and unaffiliated voters who are worried about tax cuts enacted at Brownback’s urging. The cuts dropped the state’s top personal income tax rate by 26 percent and exempted the owners of 191,000 businesses from income taxes altogether.

Brownback contends the reductions are boosting the economy, but the Legislature’s nonpartisan research staff predicts a $260 million budget shortfall by July 2016.

Education cuts have been a focus throughout the campaign and in earlier debates. The Kansas Supreme Court has found the state’s education spending unconstitutional and ordered the state to better fund its schools. The governor has steadfastly claimed he has increased education spending, while Davis contends the incumbent is misleading voters by counting outside factors such as pensions in his numbers.

The governor’s spokesman isn’t commenting on the points the Brownback campaign wants to drive home to voters in these final public debates, but his opponent’s camp says Davis will stick to the same issues he has highlighted throughout his campaign.

“Paul has been consistent in his message throughout the entire campaign that Gov. Brownback’s experiment has hurt our schools, it has made our economy stagnant and it has driven divisions in the state of Kansas where we need to be working together to solve our big problems,” Davis campaign spokesman Chris Pumpelly said