LANSING – A plurality of state voters asked who is most to blame for the state failing to meet the October 1 deadline to enact the 2009-10 budget said: everyone – Gov. Jennifer Granholm, majority Republicans in the Senate and majority Democrats in the House.
If the respondents were apt to single out one of those three for blame, a slight plurality named the Senate Republicans (22 percent) more than Granholm (17 percent) and the House Democrats (15 percent), according to a survey taken by the Lansing firm of EPIC/MRA on a question commissioned by Gongwer News Service.
But 37 percent of the respondents volunteered that all of them should be blamed for that failure.
The survey also found that the largest number of respondents felt that the budget issues should be solved by a combination of spending cuts and revenue increases (though the number of those who thought it should be solved using just budget cuts increased as well).
The survey also found that if a proposal to enact a graduated income tax was put on the ballot, 59 percent of those polled would or were likely to vote for it.
The survey was conducted of 600 likely voters from October 11 to October 15. It has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.
Gongwer requested the question on who the voters blamed most for the state’s failure to complete a budget by the start of the 2009-10 fiscal year.
The question (“Based on what you know or have heard or read about the state budget situation in Lansing, from the following list, who do you think is most responsible for the failure to pass a budget by the October 1st deadline?) listed Granholm, the Senate GOP and House Democrats as the possible answers, but those handling the questions were also told to record the volunteered answer that all of them were responsible.
And the largest number of respondents said that all three were to blame for the budget delay.
What was surprising, according to the survey cross-tabulations, is that when broken down, most sub-groups felt all three (the governor, Senate GOP and House Democrats) deserved the blame.
More Democrats, perhaps not surprisingly, thought the Senate GOP should get the blame, 43 percent, to Granholm, 9 percent, House Dems, 6 percent, or all three of them, 31 percent. But 36 percent of Republicans thought all three should be blamed compared to 28 blaming Granholm, just 6 percent blaming Senate Republicans and 22 percent blaming House Democrats.
Among independents however, 49 percent of the respondents blamed all three compared to 11 percent blaming Granholm, 13 percent blaming Senate Republicans and 15 percent blamed House Democrats.
Men tended to blame all three (40 percent) more than women (36 percent), they also blamed Granholm slightly more (18 percent) than did women (16 percent), but women blamed Senate Republicans more (23 percent) than did men (21 percent).
All three got the highest level of blame across all income groups, but the higher the income, the narrower that gap between all three and individual blame grew. Among those earning less than $25,000, 41 percent blamed all three groups, but of those earning more than $100,000, just 29 percent blamed all three. Among the wealthiest people polled a surprising 27 percent blamed Senate Republicans for the failure compared to 22 percent blaming Granholm and 17 percent blaming House Democrats.
Those who gave Granholm good job ratings were far more likely to blame Senate Republicans (45 percent) than Granholm (5 percent), House Democrats (10 percent) and all three (28 percent). But of those giving her poor job performance ratings, 41 percent blamed all three while 23 percent blamed her, 11 percent blamed Senate Republicans and 17 percent blamed House Democrats.
The youngest people polled were the most democratic in the blame, 25 percent each blaming Granholm, Senate Republicans and all three, while 21 percent blamed House Democrats. Among the oldest group, those 65 or older, 35 percent blamed all three, while 21 percent each blamed Granholm or the Senate Republicans, and 15 percent blamed the House Democrats.
In terms of overall budget issues, a wide majority (62 percent) thought some revenues should be used to solve the budget problem, and that was up slightly from a similar survey done in September when 59 percent thought revenues should be part of the mix.
A total of 30 percent said only budget cuts should be used, up from 28 percent in September. Those saying the budget should be solved with mostly budget cuts and some revenue increases fell from 17 percent in September to 14 percent this month.
Those who thought the budget should be balanced equally with cuts and revenues went from 31 percent in September to 32 percent in October.
Those who thought the budget should be balanced with mostly revenues went from 7 percent to 10 percent, and those who thought only revenues should be used went from 4 percent in September to 6 percent in October.
A much smaller number were undecided in October (8 percent) compared to September (13 percent).
Asked what revenue solution they would favor, 25 percent said a graduated income tax, 21 percent said extending the 6 percent sales tax to services, 17 percent said lowering the sales tax to 5 percent and extending that to services, 11 percent said eliminating tax breaks for corporations, and 9 percent said enacting an estate tax. Another 17 percent said they did not know.
And, asked if they would support a graduated income tax if it were on the ballot (since the Constitution would have to be changed to allow it), 54 percent said they would vote yes, 5 percent were leaning toward yes, 34 percent would vote no, 2 percent were leaning toward no and 5 percent were undecided.
This story was provided by Gongwer News Service. To subscribe, click on Gongwer.Com
a>>
