LANSING – Although economic conditions in Michigan are not as bad as they were even a few months ago, more residents see their situation declining, according to the most recent State of the State Survey.

The majority of Michigan residents are worse off now than they were a year ago, but that number is smaller than it was at the beginning of the year, according to the survey released Friday by the Michigan State University Institute for Public Policy and Social Research. And the proportion of residents who rank their financial situation as excellent or good is increasing.

But more people expect they will be worse off next year than did three months earlier, the survey said.

“If there is a surprise, it is that consumer confidence was as good as it was, with some glimmers of hope,” said Charles Ballard, quarterly survey director and MSU economics professor.

He noted that when the survey was conducted in May and June, Chrysler LLC was already in bankruptcy and General Motors Corporation entered bankruptcy.

Statewide, those who said their financial situation was excellent were at an all-time low for the survey at 3.2 percent. But combined with the 42.6 percent who said their situation was good, those feeling they were economically secure were a larger proportion than the 40 percent at the beginning of the year and the 43.4 percent average for 2008.

Those three years still remain the lowest for economic security since 1995.

And 65.1 percent believe they are worse off than a year ago, a slight improvement from the 67.1 percent who felt that way at the beginning of the year.

“Just because you’re worse off doesn’t mean you’re badly off,” Ballard said. “If you are a surgeon in Michigan you probably doing just fine.”

The number feeling they were better off than last year did not follow the same trend, dropping to 12.7 percent from 15 percent at the beginning of the year and setting a new record for the survey.

But more feel they will be worse off next year. Some 39.9 percent see their situation declining over the next year, the highest decline expectation since 1995. The survey also broke a record for the fewest people seeing their economic situation better in a year at 43.1 percent.

Residents are, to some extent, taking out their economic woes on political leaders. Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s approval numbers, 29.1 percent, were down slightly from the beginning of the year, but still above her low point of 19 percent in 2008.

“For so many years the Michigan economy was sluggish and the rest of the country was growing. Now the whole country sluggish,” Ballard said. “Now it’s clear this recession has its roots on Wall Street and in Washington and in the housing market in Las Vegas. More people may be willing to give the governor benefit of the doubt.”

President Barack Obama also saw a slight dip in approval, to 62.6 percent, but that is still above all but former President George W. Bush’s approval in 2002 after the September 2001 terrorist attacks.

And approval numbers for both leaders are tied somewhat to economic feelings regionally. In the Upper Peninsula, where 68.2 percent of residents saw themselves worse off than last year, approval for Ms. Granholm was only 13.1 percent and for Mr. Obama was 42.1 percent. In Detroit, where 61.3 percent said they were worse off this year than last, approval rates were 43.4 percent and 80.6 percent respectively.

The standout was the Grand Rapids area, a Republican stronghold, where only 60.9 percent said they were worse off than last year but only 22.3 percent approved of Granholm’s work and only 48.3 percent approved of Obama.

That partisan split in Grand Rapids is backed by the survey results, which showed only 57.3 percent of Republicans thought they were worse off now than last year, but Granholm’s approval was 6.2 percent and Obama’s was 31.9 percent. Among Democrats, 41.2 percent approved of Granholm and 90.5 percent approved of Obama despite 63.3 percent feeling they were worse off this year.

Democratic Party affiliation also took a bit of a drop. Only 38.4 percent considered themselves Democrats, down from a high of 41.3 percent at the beginning of the year. Republican numbers, in contrast, climbed a bit to 21.8 percent from a low of 19 percent in that same poll.

Ballard said it was not clear yet if the drop was a trend or an anomaly in the data.

Political affiliation also appears related to economic condition. More independents, 69.7 percent, felt their fiscal well-being had dropped in the last year. But their views on leaders were a bit more centrist, with 35.4 percent approving of Granholm and 57.2 percent approving of Obama.

“Republicans tend to be more affluent,” Ballard said. “A lot of Democrats are not laid off UAW workers.”

But he said he could not explain the statistically significant difference in relative affluence between Democrats and independents.

This story was provided by Gongwer News Service. To subscribe, click on Gongwer.Com

a>>