LANSING – A state economy that continues to mire in gloom has created a gloomy public as well, with a record number of people responding to a survey saying they were worse off now than they were a year before.

The latest iteration of the State of the State Survey, conducted by the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research at Michigan State University, also showed a surprising rise in a sense of a public trust of government at all levels. In fact, the survey also showed that for the first time in its 15-year run, more people trusted the federal government than they did state government.

The survey also showed a slight boost in public approval for Governor Jennifer Granholm.

But the effect of the economy on the public drew the most attention, with slightly fewer than 50 percent of those polled thinking they would be better off in a year than they are now.

And nearly 80 percent of those polled thought the most important issues were either dealing with jobs and unemployment or boosting economic growth.

The results are from the winter quarter edition of the survey. The survey has been conducted four times a year since 1994 for IPPSR.

Charles Ballard, an MSU economist and director of the SOSS program, said the first quarter of the year was “a dark winter” for the state that showed in the results.

The survey polled more than 1,000 adults in the state. The margin of error in the survey is 3.1 percent.

The survey was the first for SOSS to gauge public support for President Barack Obama and found a complete reversal of fortune between he and former President George W. Bush. In the last survey to ask about Mr. Bush, in the autumn of 2008, just 13.7 percent said Bush was doing an excellent or good job while 59.2 percent said he was doing a poor job.

For Obama, however, 70.7 percent of those polled said he was doing a good or excellent job while just 9.7 percent thought he was doing a poor job. Ballard said part of that support likely had to do with the newness of his administration, and that later surveys, once Obama has had more time in office, may show changes.

In terms of how people assessed their own economic well being, 67.1 percent said they were worse off than they were a year ago. That is a record, Ballard said, topping the 63.9 percent who said during the fall they were worse off than a year before.

The depressing statistic also tops the record percentage of people, in 1999, who said they were better off than the year before, 61.6 percent at that time.

With so many of those quizzed saying they were worse off, it was not surprising that just 15 percent of those polled said they were better off than the year before. Still, that actually was a higher percentage than 13.6 percent who said they were in better shape than in a survey done the year before.

In terms of whether they thought they would be in better a shape a year from now, 48.8 percent, the plurality, said they thought they would. Ballard called that an “encouraging reservoir of resilience.”

That percentage was significantly higher than a year before, when a slight plurality thought they would be worse off in a year than they were then, but the number was actually down from the slight majority of those polled in the summer and fall who said they would be better off in a year’s time.

Michigan’s economic problems were also reflected in the top issues those polled identified. More than 57 percent said the top problem facing the state was jobs and unemployment (as Ballard said, the left-wing way of looking at the problem) while another 20.3 percent said stimulating the economy was the chief problem (the right-wing way of looking at the issue, he said).

In a distant third position was improving education, which stood at 5.2 percent, while dealing with health care and health insurance stood at 4.4 percent.

Dealing with state taxes was even further down the line, with just 1.6 percent of those polled citing that as a top issue.

But in 2001, when the economy in Michigan was just starting to go into what has been a decade-long slump, just 6.6 percent of those polled citied jobs and unemployment as the top issue while 3.9 percent cited economic development. In contrast, that year 41.7 percent of those polled said improving schools and dealing with school finances was the top problem.

Turning to political attitudes, Ballard said Granholm may have gotten a benefit from the high opinion expressed for Obama, with her getting her highest approval ratings since 2006.

She still fell far behind Obama in approval, but a total of 33.2 percent gave her excellent or good ratings, compared to slightly more than 20 percent a year before. Those giving her a poor rating fell to 30.4 percent compared to 43.8 percent a year before.

Ballard also said the fact that it was clear Michigan was no longer in a one-state recession may have helped Granholm’s ratings.

In part because of Obama, in part because of federal action to deal with the recession, the survey also showed more people expressing trust in the federal government. A year ago, fewer than 20 percent said they trusted the federal government, in the latest survey the total was up to nearly 25 percent. A slightly higher number said they generally distrusted the federal government.

And while a slightly higher percentage of people said they trusted state government than a year ago (20 percent compared to 18 percent), Ballard said this survey marked the first time that trust in the federal government outpaced the state government.

People tend to trust the governments they are closest to, Ballard said. So, more than 40 percent of those polled said they trusted local government.

And the survey showed a dramatic shift in political identification, he said. After more than a decade with the numbers of people identifying themselves as either Democratic and Republican staying relatively close (with slightly more people identifying themselves as Republicans in 2002) in this latest survey more than 40 percent of those polled identified themselves as Democrats while fewer than 20 percent identified themselves as Republicans.

Should that trend continue, Ballard said it could be difficult for a Republican to win the gubernatorial election in 2010. But he also cautioned that predicting an election at this point was even less certain than forecasting the economy.

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

a>>