BLOOMINGTON - The Democratic and Republican candidates for governor have similar aspirations to increase ethanol production in Illinois. They are so similar in fact that Republican state Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka accused Gov. Rod Blagojevich of stealing her ideas while speaking Wednesday at a forum in eastern McLean County.

"Where have you been the last four years?" Topinka asked.

The Democratic incumbent, meanwhile, said his farm policies come from the director of the Illinois Department of Agriculture, the Illinois Farm Bureau and other agriculture groups.

"God forbid, if they came from me, a guy from Chicago, they would not be good farm policies," Blagojevich said at a candidate forum at a Colfax farm Wednesday.

Where they differ is on how to pay for the ethanol production plants.

The two candidates spoke at separate times Wednesday at a farm in Colfax at the invitation of the Illinois Agriculture Legislative Roundtable, a statewide bloc of agribusiness interests.

Steve Scates, past chairman of the Illinois Soybean Association, noted after the forum that ethanol production within the state will become more essential as Illinois farms lose export business to agricultural producers in South America.

"A lot of the business in Illinois has been the export business, but with increased competition, a lot of the world market has been going to Brazil," he said.

Both Blagojevich and Topinka want to increase Illinois' consumption of its own corn by building about 20 ethanol plants over the next five years.

The two disagree on how to fund construction of those plants, however.

"I believe that if we're successful in November, that we'll get some sort of bonding program to do this sort of thing as well as build the schools and the road projects that are critical to our state and our infrastructure," said Blagojevich, who also toured construction sites at Illinois State University during his visit Wednesday to Central Illinois.

Topinka, however, scoffed at any idea of borrowing more money. She said Illinois has special-use funds generated by agriculture-related business to build ethanol plants but the governor raided those funds.

"I'm going to use renewable energy dollars to build new renewable energy projects. I'm not going to raid those funds," she said.

To increase ethanol consumption, Blagojevich wants to provide tax incentives to persuade all 5,000 gas stations in Illinois to offer E85 gasoline, a mix of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, by 2017. Today, around 140 Illinois stations offer E85, he said.

For a more short-term goal, Topinka wants to mandate all gas stations to sell gasoline with a 10 percent ethanol mix.