Carla Howell, the leader of the effort behind Question 1, called for a debate with the president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, an organization that Howell accused of being the force behind the effort to defeat the anti-tax ballot measure.

Howell is the chairwoman of the Committee for Small Government, the organization that collected signatures to get Question 1, which would abolish the state income tax, on the ballot this year. In a release, Howell's committee charged that the Massachusetts Teachers Association has contributed $296,161.32 to the Coalition for our Communities, the committee seeking to defeat the measure. Consequently, Howell wants to debate Anne Waas, the Massachusetts Teachers Association's president.

"We would like to debate the people who are really behind Question 1 - the unions," Garrett Quinn, a spokesman for the Committee for Small Government, told PolitickerMA.com.

The Committee for Small Government also alleged that teachers unions are "bankrolling 59 percent of all Question 1 opposition."

Steve Crawford, a spokesman for the Coalition for our Communities, told PolitickerMA.com that his organization's leader is willing to debate Howell.

"Our committee's unpaid chairman Peter Meade is happy to debate Ms. Howell anytime," he said. "She refuses to do so."

The Committee for Small Government's insistence on debating Waas, Crawford said, shows that they are more interested in discussing who funds the Coalition for our Communities, rather than how Question 1 would impact the state.

"Supporters of Question 1 are focused only on discrediting those who oppose the ballot measure instead of on the devastating effects it would have," Crawford said.