LYNN — With less than three weeks until the final election, Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy and state Sen. Thomas M. McGee highlighted their differences in the latest mayoral debate on Friday.
Hosted by the Lynn Area Chamber of Commerce and moderated by former Revere Mayor Daniel Rizzo, the candidates covered transportation, the opioid crisis, the deficit, and a plan to replace or fix the city’s school buildings.
Among their disagreements included the MBTA’s Blue Line, how to fight the opioid crisis, and the size of the city’s budget deficit.
McGee said the line’s extension from Revere to Lynn and the rest of the North Shore is key to relieving gridlock and expanding the city’s commercial growth.
“We are the only Greater Boston community without rapid transit,” he said. “Extending the Blue Line will link us to Boston and the rest of the North Shore, and spur economic growth.”
But Kennedy disagreed, noting discussion of the extension has been floated since 1926 and the idea is dead.
“The city’s success does not depend on bringing the Blue Line to Lynn,” she said. “If we haven’t been able to get it up to now, it’s unlikely to ever happen.”
On the opioid crisis, Kennedy said on her watch all police officers and firefighters have been trained in the use of Narcan, a medication used to reverse the effects of opioid overdose.
In addition, she said the city also has outreach workers on the street to get addicts into treatment.
McGee said he supported efforts in the Legislature for a 65 percent increase in funding to fight opioid abuse.
But the candidates disagreed on whether lawmakers should have repealed a measure last year that required the automatic license suspension of anyone convicted of a drug crime.
Kennedy said she opposed the repeal of the law which McGee favored.
Established in the 1980s, the automatic license suspension stemmed from the nation’s War on Drugs. Under the law, anyone convicted of a drug-related crime, whether or not it involved a motor vehicle, had their license suspended for up to five years.
“If drug dealers can’t get around, it makes their job a lot tougher,” Kennedy said. “We should have kept it.”
But McGee joined proponents for the bill who said it will allow former prisoners to more easily reintegrate into society by getting a job and supporting their families.
On the city’s budget deficit, there was also disagreement.
Kennedy said the budget hole was $4.2 million, while McGee pegged the number at twice that.
He called for a comprehensive audit to determine how city funds are being spent.
Kennedy said she has taken a number of steps to reduce the deficit including a new trash fee and a hiring freeze. She has avoided layoffs of city workers during her two terms in office, she added.
On the defeat of a proposal by voters to build two new middle schools earlier this year, McGee said the city needs to talk with opponents and develop a comprehensive plan to replace the city’s older school buildings.
Kennedy, who noted five schools are more than 100 years old, said she plans to go back to the state to seek up to 80 percent reimbursement for two new middle schools and consider different sites. The city already has a long-term plan to replace or repair schools, she said, starting with the Pickering Middle School, followed by Cobbett and Tracy elementary schools.
Each shared enthusiasm for the recent application for Lynn to house Amazon’s next headquarters.
“At first, my gut reaction was no, because since 2007 our blueprint for the waterfront called for housing as a way to bring more people into the city,” Kennedy said. “But after listening to a number of people, the idea of bringing an Amazon campus made sense.”
McGee liked the idea from the start.
“It’s an exciting opportunity,” he said.
