Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial candidates, Attorney General Jim Doyle, left, Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk and Rep. Tom Barrett, D-Wis., debate Thursday in Madison.

MADISON - The Democrats running for governor pushed their ideas for solving Wisconsin's budget woes in their last broadcast debate before the primary election, but one of the three acknowledged they came up short.

"I think we have still not really reached what we wanted to do, and that's to come up with $1.3 billion," U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett said after trying to steer the hour-long debate Thursday night toward a list of his suggestions for cutting state spending.

The state faces a projected $1.3 billion deficit in the fiscal year that starts next July 1 because spending commitments are expected to outpace revenues.

Barrett, Attorney General Jim Doyle and Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk met in a free-form debate without a moderator or time limits. The winner of Tuesday's vote is expected to face Republican Gov. Scott McCallum in the Nov. 5 general election.

Within moments of the debate's end, the McCallum campaign sent out a news release criticizing the three Democrats and using the quotes from Barrett about their inability to find $1.3 billion to fix the deficit.

Tom Barrett

James Doyle

Kathleen Falk

The three Democrats blamed McCallum for the state's fiscal problems and said they could all do a better job than he had managing the state budget.

"What I think we should do this next hour is go through and see how many dollars we've got," Barrett said during the debate held by We the People/Wisconsin and Wisconsin Public Television.

Doyle and Falk were not as enthused about the idea.

"Are we going to go through all of this?" Doyle asked.

Barrett proposed stepping up collection of delinquent taxes, consolidating agencies and cutting spending by the Legislature.

He also proposed negotiating a larger share of revenue from Indian gaming in exchange for agreeing to compacts longer than the current length of five years.

At the end of the debate, Barrett said he could not come up with $1.3 billion on his own, but the other candidates couldn't either.

"We've got to talk about our broader vision here," Doyle said.

He said one of the keys to cutting state spending is limiting the size of government. He proposes eliminating 10,000 state jobs within eight years.

The state has about 65,000 full-time positions.

"State government over the next four years, eight years has to become much more service-oriented, much more streamlined," Doyle said.

Falk continued to push for an 85-cent increase in the cigarette tax, which would raise the price to $1.62 per pack. She estimates the change would raise $250 million a year to help solve the budget deficit.

Falk also promoted her plan to release nonviolent prisoners, saying Wisconsin incarcerates three times as many offenders as neighboring Minnesota. "We need to be smarter on crime here and smarter on dollars."

But Doyle criticized her for not considering the consequences of letting so many offenders out of prison. Most of the prisoners serving less than two years in jail have been convicted of serious offenses such as repeated drunken driving, he said.

"The people who are in the prison system are not first-time marijuana offenders," Doyle said.

"Jim, don't say that. I've never said something like that," Falk responded.

"A person may have a drug problem but committed three burglaries to support their habit. ... They are a danger," Doyle said.

Barrett said it's embarrassing that Wisconsin sends more prisoners out of state than any other state.

The state corrections system has 21,229 inmates, of which 3,476 are housed out of state.

"I want to bring those prisoners back," Barrett said, adding that prison downsizing has to be done without forcing prison guards to lose their jobs.

McCallum spokesman Darrin Schmitz said immediately following the debate that none of the Democrats' plans would come close to solving the state's budget woes.