LANSING – The Michigan general public opposes most of Governor Rick Snyder’s major tax and spending proposals, a new poll shows, and some, especially cutting spending on schools, are opposed by Republicans.
The results also show a large majority oppose the recently enacted emergency manager act and proposals to take away collective bargaining rights. In fact, a majority said they would vote for a ballot proposal that would guarantee the right of workers to organize and collectively bargain.
The results were the second half of a poll commissioned and conducted by the Lansing polling firm of EPIC/MRA of 600 registered voters from April 27 through May 3. The error rate is plus or minus 4 percentage points.
The first half of the result released on Tuesday showed that public support of Snyder’s job performance has plummeted.
The latest results showed that there was virtually no overall support for any of Snyder’s main proposals, except from those identified as Republicans or tea party members.
Even then, a bare plurality of Republicans backed the proposal to tax pensions, the poll showed.
In one interesting finding, the poll showed that a plurality of Republicans would also support a constitutional amendment to create a graduated income tax.
Another finding showed that most people, when first asked, would support a right-to-work amendment. But after a follow-up question in which respondents were told some opponents consider a right-to-work amendment unfair because non-represented individuals get the same benefits as union members who negotiated them, a minority then supports the proposal.
Few of Mr. Snyder’s proposals got general support from the respondents, though several were close in terms of support and opposition, and most got strong support from respondents identifying themselves as Republicans.
One of the closest to breaking even in terms of support and opposition was his call to cut wages and benefits for state workers by $180 million. A total of 46 percent supported the idea while 49 percent opposed it.
In a partisan split, just 23 percent of the Democrats supported the proposal while 67 percent of the Republicans backed it. Just 46 percent of those identified as independents backed the proposal.
Support for privatizing some state services was also fairly close, with 46 percent supporting it and 48 percent opposing it. Again, while just 25 percent of Democrats supported the proposal, 71 percent of Republicans backed it.
And the proposal to cut revenue sharing to local governments did get a plurality of support, with 48 percent of the respondents backing it while 45 percent opposed it.
Snyder’s initial proposal to eliminate the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit (which has now been changed to a reduced EITC) was backed by just 29 percent of the respondents, while 66 percent opposed it.
His proposal to cut funding on the state’s public universities by $200 million was backed by 43 percent of the respondents while 49 percent opposed it.
And the newly enacted law on emergency managers was supported by just 36 percent of the respondents while 60 percent opposed it. The partisan split on that proposal was one of the most striking, with just 14 percent of Democrats supporting it and 81 percent opposed, while 60 percent of Republicans backed the measure and just 37 percent opposed it. Among independents, just 32 percent supported the proposal and 62 percent opposed it.
Snyder’s initial proposal to tax pensions was backed by just 29 percent of respondents with 67 percent opposing the proposal. The compromise proposal on the pension tax reached last month did not fare much better with just 31 percent of those asked supporting the measure.
In the partisan split, just 47 percent of the Republicans polled back the pension tax, while 46 percent opposed it. Among Democrats, it was supported by just 16 percent, with 78 percent opposing it; and just 23 percent of independents backed it, while 71 percent opposed it.
But even Republicans opposed the proposal to cut funding for public schools. Asked if they would back cutting an additional $170 per pupil on top of the $170 already cut, just 27 percent of all those asked supported the proposal, while 68 percent opposed it.
And 44 percent of the Republicans polled supported cutting the schools, while 50 percent opposed it.
A tiny 7 percent of Democrats supported the idea, while 89 percent opposed it. Just 23 percent of independents supported the proposal while 72 percent opposed it.
Asked if they would support the state adopting a graduated income tax, 64 percent said they would while just 32 percent opposed the idea. Democrats backed the idea 77 percent to 17 percent; independents backed in 65 percent to 30 percent, and 49 percent of the Republicans would support it, while 48 percent were against. The gender split among Republicans was even more striking, with just 39 percent of men supporting it but 60 percent of women supporting the idea.
Asked about cutting business tax credits that do not create or preserve jobs, 76 percent of those polled supported the idea while just 18 percent were opposed. There was little difference in the partisan split, with 79 percent of Democrats backing it, 77 percent of independents doing so and 74 percent of Republicans backing it.
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