Healey criticized Patrick for bucking the will of the people by refusing to back an immediate rollback of the state income tax to 5 percent. She also made several impassioned pleas over the course of the evening for GOP control of the corner office to ensure the state's democratic institutions work.
"It worries me that if every office on Beacon Hill, including the governor's office, is occupied by Democrats, spending will go out of control," Healey said.
Patrick, meantime, contended that the election was about "meaningful change or more of the same" from Republicans who "have had their chance."
As in the first debate, taxes led off the evening, with Healey asking her three rivals why they would not honor the will of the people and support an immediate rollback approved by voters in 2000.
Patrick said the state needed to focus on fixing roads, bridges and schools to stabilize the economy so that a tax rollback could be sustained.
"I respect and honor the will of the people," Patrick said. But he wants to put the state's resources toward restoring local aid and rebuilding infrastructure, and he called Healey's plans part of a Beacon Hill "fiscal shell game."
Healey countered that the state can do the tax rollback and invest in cities and towns by saving money through efficiencies, such as having a single state pension fund.
Independent Christy Mihos said he backed the rollback but also wanted to increase money to cities and towns.
Green-Rainbow candidate Grace Ross, who opposes the rollback, said pledges of no-new-taxes had hurt working people like herself, a community activist by trade.
The most heated exchanges came between Healey and Mihos, who were seated beside each other in the first debate Sept. 25 and last night stood side by side.
The candidates quizzed each other during the first 25 minutes of last night's debate, and Mihos early on accused Healey and the Romney administration of mapping details of the state's new health care law in secret, and asked Healey if she would open the meeting to the public.
Healey responded by highlighting the administration's role in getting the health care law passed, causing Mihos to accuse Healey of not answering the question. Healey shot back that he hadn't adequately explained his position on the tax rollback, leading Patrick to jump in.
"All right, you two," he said to laughter from the audience.
In the second half, the candidates took questions from reporters. The first one had to do with balanced government - a Healey theme.
"If Deval Patrick is elected, we'll have everything done behind closed doors," Healey said.
Healey was less assertive when asked if she would initiate legislation to repeal a 1913 law to prevent gay couples from coming to Massachusetts to marry. She only said states should determine their own marriage policies.
Patrick, a former high-ranking civil rights official in the Clinton administration, said he'd work to expunge the law.
"I think something as questionable and discriminatory ought to come off the books," Patrick said.
Big Dig oversight, which Mihos hammered Healey over in the first meeting, was brought up only toward the end when Patrick criticized the Romney-Healey administration for not initiating a review of the Big Dig's safety until after the July 10 tunnel ceiling collapse that killed a Jamaica Plain woman.
Although only the second of four debates, the debate was seen as a critical opportunity for Healey to make up ground in public opinion polls with bold moves.
"She's so far behind in the polls and hasn't been able to move," Tobe Berkovitz, associate dean of Boston University's College of Communication, said. "There aren't enough weeks left unless this gets the campaign kick-started."
The debate at American International College was the only meeting of the four candidates for governor outside Greater Boston. The candidates meet again Oct. 19 at Fanueil Hall in Boston.
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