BOSTON -- With the state primary just days away, the candidates for lieutenant governor are pushing for every last vote.

NewsCenter 5's Amalia Barreda reported that lieutenant governor candidate Tim Murray announced a community safety plan Thursday that has the backing of several Boston city councilors and the Suffolk County sheriff. The plan would increase the number of police officers in cities and towns across the commonwealth.

"We would do that by imposing a fee on convicted criminals, felony or misdemeanor offenses, and by rededicating some money that used to be dedicated for public safety in the excise tax and raising $15 million a year that would be used to provide grants to put 250 police officers on the street each and every year," Murray said.

As the mayor of Worcester, Murray said he would bring geographic balance to the ticket.

"I don't think it's a mistake why Kerry Healey picked Reed Hillman. Shannon O'Brien in 2002 lost every city and town from Route 495 west to Springfield with the exception of the city of Worcester," Murray said.

In Lynn, it was a tour of a community health center for candidate Andrea Silbert, who said affordable health care is one of her many concerns.

"I'm a middle class mother and living like many families in this state, and I understand many issues from that vantage point -- whether it's public schools or health care. So I hope to be able to advocate with the governor on many issues from health care to the environment to education," Silbert said.

Silbert has run on a platform of job creation. She said improving the economy will create jobs and help fix another problem -- family homelessness.

"It costs about $40,000 a year to keep that family in a shelter versus much less to provide rental assistance. Honestly, it's about putting our money where our mouth is," Silbert said.

In Brighton on Thursday afternoon, a multicultural forum attended by senior citizens was where Deb Goldberg worked to get her message across about being a job creator.

"Whether it was making sure that people had jobs in my own community or being involved in a business that employed 50,000, I know how to work on the big picture and the small picture of creating jobs in this state," Goldberg said.

Homelessness is also an issue for Goldberg. She said most problems in the commonwealth stem from the overall cost of living in the state.

"It's the No. 1 issue to people on the street. I've traveled the state for two years but I decided to run because I felt we weren't addressing the cost of living in Massachusetts," Goldberg said.

Goldberg said she favors rolling back the state income tax, where Silbert and Murray do not. They said they fear rolling it back would cause a hike in property taxes.