No Clear Signals on Budget, UT/TT Poll Finds

[w8liftinglady]

http://www.texastribune.org/texas-taxes/budget/no-clear-signals-on-budget-new-uttt-poll-finds/

Four months of hearing about the state's budget problems hasn't changed the minds of Texas voters. According to the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll, registered voters still want lawmakers to cut the budget, but they still oppose the major cuts in education and health and human services that cutting the budget requires.

Legislators are working out the final details of a 2012-13 state budget that cuts $15 billion from current spending, including $4 billion in cuts to public education and huge cuts in variety of health and human services programs. A final vote on that budget will come this week — the last of the 20-week regular legislative session.


Voters want the cuts — until specific programs are on the chopping block. Poll respondents were asked, on a scale of 0 to 10, whether they preferred to balance the next budget with spending cuts, by raising revenues or with something in between. The answers this time were about the same as in our February poll, with only 4 percent choosing to balance the books with new revenue and 18 percent saying it should all be done with cuts. Another 18 percent landed right in the middle. Broken down by political preferences, the average Democrat landed at 5.8 on the scale, or close to the middle but a little on the side of raising revenue. The average Republican scored 2.3 — much closer to the budget-cutting end of the scale. And the average independent was a budget cutter, too, scoring 3.6 on average.

"Republicans are much more intense about cutting the budget than Democrats are about increasing revenue," says pollster Jim Henson, who teaches government and runs the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas.

[sonias]

1. Crazy - we are totally delusional

It's not like Texas has a huge defense budget or something that sticks out like the federal budget. Well maybe prisons but you're not going to fix that in two years. We're already cutting muscle and bone on the patient.

People just don't want to face the reality that an investment in the future for our kids costs money. Nothing is free. And doing noting but cutting at the safety net programs and education is just passing the buck. It's creating a more bleak future for the next generation.

People will always believe that somebody else should pay for the common good.

"Don't tax you, don't tax me - tax that other guy behind the tree." :crazy: