LANSING – The good news for backers of Proposal 15-1 to raise the sales tax as part of a plan to increase road funding by $1.2 billion is that they have improved their position in the polls in the past month.
The bad news is that despite millions spent on television advertising and mailings – and total ownership of the airwaves and mailboxes over the opposition – is that they gained only four points in support. A new poll from EPIC/MRA, commissioned by the Detroit Free Press and several television stations, shows 29 percent of voter saying they plan to vote yes on Tuesday and 61 percent saying they plan to vote no.
The last EPIC/MRA poll, released in late March, showed support at 25 percent and opposition at 66 percent.
Backers of Proposal 1 have scoffed at polls, saying this will be such a low-turnout election that polls cannot possibly accurately determine the composition of the electorate.
Still, the campaign is now in its final days, the ads aired, the media coverage nearly complete, and still, support appears thin.
And supporters themselves have said as they speak to voters at town halls, they initially encounter substantial hostility toward the proposal although they also have found some softening once voters hear the details.
The poll of 600 likely voters was conducted Saturday through Tuesday and has an error margin of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
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