The Field Poll couldn’t be any clearer about it if they tried: Californians simply do not support budget cuts:
Public schools: 79% oppose cuts, 20% favor cuts
Public assistance for elderly and disabled: 77-21
Health care for low-income and poor: 71-26
Higher education: 70-28
Law enforcement: 67-31
Mental health: 65-31
Child care: 59-38
Welfare: 57-40
The only two cuts a majority supported making were to prisons and parks.
Now, the Field Poll has limited utility, because it didn’t ask if voters would support new revenues to prevent these cuts. But we know from the January PPIC poll that the answer is a resounding yes – with nearly 70% of voters saying they supported new revenues to fund public schools in particular. That seems to confirm the basic view that Californians are not enthused by these specific spending cuts and would support avoiding them by raising new revenues, though the method of generating new revenue certainly matters.
These kind of specific polls are more effective at gauging public opinion than asking a broad “do you support cuts or taxes?” questions, since state budgeting involves making these kinds of decisions about cutting specific programs.
Not everyone thinks this poll reveals sound decision-making. John Myers of KQED points out that voters would still be $6 billion short if their preferences in the Field Poll were actually used to close the gap:
And here’s the problem: today’s survey doesn’t cut it. In fact, even if your staff takes these suggestions to their most extreme, you’re still only agreeing to solutions that – at very most – would erase $14 billion of the state $20 billion budget gap.
It’s an entertaining read, but what it actually reveals are the limitations of the Field Poll. To get a true sense of voter attitudes on the budget, Field needs to ask the PPIC questions about whether taxes or cuts are preferred for specific programs. And someone needs to ask about Oregon-style taxation, which apparently has been written out of the story by the state’s pollsters, press and politicians like Thomas Jefferson in a Texas textbook.
is that most people think the magic asterisk fairy will prevent cuts to the services they favor by waving a wand to eliminae “waste, inefficiency, and corruption”.
Most of the others think that public employees should be making minimum wages, so you can prevent cuts to services as-delivered by grinding down the public employees, who are just on the dole anyway. After all, if they could earn an honest living, wouldn’t they be in the private sector?
The vicious spiral is that the crappier services become as the public sector is squeezed by the anti-government lobby, the less people want to pay taxes to support the services. Potholes breed potholes.
Potholes do breed Potholes, however…
I think most people (save for the Tea Party) know taxes have to be increased. Oregonians voted for increased taxes on those in the high income bracket.
I don’t think Silicon Valley or Hollywood would be screaming too much about tax increases, they know they have gotten off lightly the last few years via State and Federal tax laws.
700,000 signatures were submitted for Legalizing Marijuana, its also polling in the mid to high 50% range without any media push.
The saving from law enforcement and taxing purchasing of Weed will allow for some of these programs not to be cut, but increased.
Also SB810 will save the State a TON of money and most of the funding will come directly from the Federal Government which just passed Health Care Reform and was signed into law yesterday, I don’t see Jerry Brown going on FOX talking about suing the Fed for HCR Mandate.
Here’s something the Field Poll should try: ask Californians what percentage of the state budget goes to education, prisons, roads, environmental protection and etc. I have a feeling that the numbers would be wildly off target. Such a poll could serve as a teaching moment or at least a chance to show how little we know about the budget. For what it’s worth, I’d probably do poorly on such a test.
This subject also reminds me of something from Matt Miller’s “1% Solution” book. He recommends that news organizations devote space to things that aren’t changing, a set of “Still True” info boxes on the editorial page or the front page. For example, a daily pie chart showing where the state spends its money. Repetition could help with understanding.