During July, The Rasmuson Foundation worked with Strategies 360 to poll registered voters to gather their opinions on the current state fiscal situation. The results of the survey were released to the public on August 13. The survey was titled “Alaska Attitudes on the State Fiscal Climate” and examined voter opinion about the budget shortfall facing Alaska. Twelve hundred and six registered voters from around the state were surveyed between July 13 and 21, 2015.
According to the Rasmuson Foundation, highlights of the survey include:
- Nearly 90 percent of voters know about the budget shortfall facing the state with a majority of those polled ‘extremely’ to ‘fairly’ concerned about the shortfall.
- A majority of voters would prefer to see new revenue included as part of any solution to address the budget shortfall.
- Just 25 percent of residents believe that the state’s budget shortfall should be solved ‘only’ or ‘mostly’ through spending cuts.
- 61 percent of voters believe that the state’s economy would be negatively impacted if the state only relied on savings and spending cuts and did not raise new revenue to address the shortfall.
- 66 percent have low confidence in elected officials. The governor has a 54 percent approval rating and the Legislature has a 32 percent approval rating.
- People are significantly unaware that they pay no personal state taxes.
In order to help close the budget shortfall, voters surveyed said they would be willing to support a number of revenue proposals, including:
- Introducing a statewide sales tax
- Putting a cap on the yearly amount of Permanent Fund dividends
- Using a portion of excess earnings from the Permanent Fund to fund public services and programs
- Reducing oil development tax credits offered by the state
It is great that the Rasmuson Foundation undertook the task of surveying voters to help guide government officials. This survey will be a good baseline to construct statewide outreach and discussions regarding the fiscal policy issues. This should help guide our elected officials in discussions on how to reach out to their constituents and appreciate the level of understanding of the average voter. While it is alarming that many voters are unaware that they do not pay personal state taxes, it is positive that voters are willing to discuss additional revenue options to help bridge the gap in providing government services.
The full survey, including results can be read at: https://www.rasmuson.org/_uploads/press_release/355/Alaskaattitudesonstatefiscalclimate.pdf
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