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RALEIGH — Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory and Lt. Gov. Bev Perdue are locked in a tight race for the governor’s mansion. The two have traded leads in public polls as they trade barbs through campaign ads.

We asked our Voterspeak panel of readers for questions they would want to ask the pair, hoping to help people who might still be undecided in the race make up their minds.

On Friday, we’ll put three questions to Perdue. Today, McCrory takes a crack at answering.

Ruth Mary Weston, 54, Democrat:

“With tax revenues falling, how do you propose to balance the state’s budget?”

A: “The first thing I’m going to do is reprioritize where we’re spending our money,” McCrory said. “I’m going to look at every program, including education.”

He said that colleges should shift spending from majors that don’t produce good job prospects to those that do. For example, he said he would channel money into the nursing program by taking money from programs that don’t have obvious career paths attached to them.

“My goal is to get people jobs,” he said.

He said that he would put together a crisis team to go through the budget line-by-line and cut unnecessary expenditures. McCrory said that he would not raise taxes to balance the budget.

Jeff Bartolet, 38, Republican:

“What steps will you take to make state government more open and accountable to the people of this state?”

A: McCrory responded by saying he has a 10-point plan to do that posted on his Web site. He was asked to highlight one or two points.

“I’m already doing some of it. I put my financial reports online so everyone can see exactly where my contributions come from,” McCrory said, referring to his campaign finance documents.

He also said that he wanted the state to put every contract and the bids for that contract online so that people can see what government is buying, what is being paid and who is winning the business.

Kate Peeples, 27, unaffiliated:

“Why should I vote for either one of you?”

A: “Leadership,” answered McCrory, who has founded his campaign on his work guiding the city of Charlotte for the past decade.

“Leadership in the area of public safety, leadership in the area of economic development. ... Leadership in open and honest government,” he said.

“I have a successful track record in recruiting and creating jobs, preparing transportation in anticipation of growth rather than reacting to it,” he said.

Contact Mark Binker at (919) 832-5549 or mark.binker@news-record.com