UT/Texas Tribune Poll: Mixed Signals on Budget Cuts
By a margin of more than 2 to 1, Texas voters believe that lawmakers should solve the state's massive shortfall by cutting the budget, according to the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll, but their enthusiasm dissipates when asked if they support specific cuts.
"We really want to slash the budget, but not anything in it," says pollster Daron Shaw, a professor of government at UT.
On a sliding scale of 0-10, poll respondents were asked whether they would prefer to balance the state's next budget through budget cuts, by raising revenues, or something in between. Only ...
Comments (11)
Proud Texan
It's interesting that you drill down into budget cuts, but you gloss over the gambling issue and simply ask if the respondent supports gambling or not. Why not drill down into the gambling issue instead of just throwing it out there?
It's one thing to talk about the issue in the abstract, but when you ask if they want a casino near their home, the answer changes. When you remind them that the casino owners will make the lion's share of the money, the answer changes. When you talk about the social costs, the answer changes. When you remind them of the years of broken promises from the horse-racing industry, the answer changes.
Your poll is very enlightening on the budget cut issue. It would be great to see the same kind of detail on the issue of gambling before we create a false sense of momentum behind the issue just by talking about it on a surface level.
Karen Cummings
Funny, Texans want good schools, good highways, fire protection, EMS and numerous other services provided by the state and county but they don't want to pay for them.
Angel R. Rivera via Texas Tribune on Facebook
In other words, as long as "I've got mine Jack" and they don't touch what they want kept, screw everyone else. What else is new? Honestly, they believe the mess is going to get solved with pixie dust?
Michael Cosper via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Democracy is a bad idea, the people always want something for nothing and are easily manipulated.
Kathi Thomas
We appear to be very short on common sense. It is clear we can't cut taxes AND provide services even at the current level, much less at increasing levels due to more and more people moving here & being born here every day. If we maintain even very low ranked status in schools and services serving the most vulnerable, we will have to raise more money, plain & simple.
The questions about "income tax" are usually shaded to get a strong "NO"- if folks were asked, "Would you prefer to pay more and more property taxes, which go up regardless of your ability to pay, or would you prefer that we have a Bob Bullock styled income tax, as in our Texas Constitution, of which the first 2/3 would go public schools and the other 1/3 would go to pay down property taxes. The State income tax would be based on your adjusted gross income (AGI) from your federal taxes and would be a much lower percentage- 3-5%. In other words, we'd be paying an amount according to our ability to pay."
Of course, this is too wordy, and it would take- horrors- educating folks- so it is quite likely that we'll continue to see our sales taxes go up, which hits middle and lower income folks harder than those in the upper incomes, as we spend a greater proportion of our income on goods.
Oh, for more elected officials like Bob Bullock, Lon Burnham, Eddie Rodriguez and (now retired) Eliot Shapleigh.
Kathi Thomas
About casinos- the only way I support them is if they're stationed along our border, so that those who are already going to LA. OK, and NM can stop & spend their money in Texas rather than in those states. I also support allowing the Native American tribes to have these casinos. We've stolen so much from them over the years, maybe time to allow them to get some money back. It would help with their very high unemployement problems and promote tourism into their areas.
Margaret Metcalf via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Freedom of open debate does not make democracy "a bad idea".
Jesper Marklund via Texas Tribune on Facebook
This is like asking a blind person what their favorite color is!
Jim Bundick via Texas Tribune on Facebook
If you could get rid of corruption and start firing the unproductive.... problem solved.
Mary Lynn VanZandt Neill via Texas Tribune on Facebook
This is a shock?? I vote we attack the cell phone contract people...Ripoff Cities. You agree???
Colby Stout
Why not ask them if they'd support cutting Governor Perry's Texas Enterprise Fund and the Emerging Technology Fund?