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Southerners Poll: Cut state waste, but not under-used or expensive state facilities
Friday, Mar 9, 2012 - Posted by Rich Miller * From the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute’s new poll of southern Illinoisans, we find 62.8 percent of southerners agree with this statement…
* But then they were asked this question…
A whopping 70.3 percent of southerners said they opposed closing “under-used” government facilities or facilities that are “too expensive to maintain.” Just 21.3 percent said they supported such a plan. 79 percent opposed closing the Tamms “super max” prison, while 70 percent were against closing Murphysboro’s Illinois Youth Center. * The southerners weren’t so duplicitous when it came to consolidating schools. About 49 percent favored saving money by “consolidating school districts in lightly populated areas.” And 48 percent favored “consolidating the school district you live in with a neighboring district.” * On pension reform, 58 percent favored replacing “future state workers’ defined-benefit plan with a 401(k)-style, defined-contribution plan, similar to what many private businesses have for their employees.” 25 percent opposed. 45 percent favored increasing pension contributions by employees, while 42 percent were opposed. 47.5 percent wanted retirees to contribute to the cost of their state health insurance plan, while 46.5 percent were opposed. And 54 percent of southerners opposed to “having local school districts make their teachers’ pension contributions,” while 31 percent favored it. * Methodology…
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- The Captain - Friday, Mar 9, 12 @ 3:13 pm:
How did these people know to believe in Magic Beans when they live outside the primary circulation area for Chicago Tribune editorials?
- Rich Miller - Friday, Mar 9, 12 @ 3:14 pm:
The Internet, TC.
- Polling Falacies - Friday, Mar 9, 12 @ 3:19 pm:
This is one of those classic cases of polling that conflates two items that aren’t really the same and then you don’t really get an answer. The question of closing an underutilized prison is totally different than the question of fixing a prison that is full. Are the Paul Simon people unable to see the difference?
- Stones - Friday, Mar 9, 12 @ 3:22 pm:
The phrase “not in my backyard” comes to mind…
- Rich Miller - Friday, Mar 9, 12 @ 3:26 pm:
PF, they ask that first question as part of a series of options in every budget poll I’ve seen them do. The second question is separate. Try clicking the link before you go off half-cocked, please. Thanks.
- champaigndweller - Friday, Mar 9, 12 @ 3:26 pm:
I wouldn’t beat up on the Southerners–this is a problem State-wide and nation-wide.
- Small Town Liberal - Friday, Mar 9, 12 @ 3:31 pm:
- I wouldn’t beat up on the Southerners–this is a problem State-wide and nation-wide. -
I’m not in favor of beating up on them, but look at the areas demanding cuts the loudest, and then look at where most of these under-used and too expensive to maintain facilities are located. People need to understand what the hand that feeds them is attached to.
- Retired Non-Union Guy - Friday, Mar 9, 12 @ 3:57 pm:
Noticed that the pension questions had no background or explanation associated with them. So we have to assume we are getting the “man in the street” / “off the cuff” opinion as opposed to a somewhat informed opinion.
I wounder how many would have voted for the 401K option if, as part of the question, they had been told it would actually cost more than the current pension system?
Or how they would have voted on more employee contributions if it had been noted the major problem was lack of State employer contributions over the past 40 years?
- MOON - Friday, Mar 9, 12 @ 3:57 pm:
The Southerners are no different than the those living up north; in fact they are no different than the entire country.
Everybody wants cuts in government spending so long as it does not affect them.
Nothing new, and I am not surprised by the results of this poll.
- Polling Falacies - Friday, Mar 9, 12 @ 4:01 pm:
Rich, not sure what you’re talking about. Under used and too expensive to maintain are in the same question. They are two different issues.
- Inconsistent - Friday, Mar 9, 12 @ 4:15 pm:
In dovetailing Fallacies point: “unnecessary programs” has a much different meaning than “under-used” and “too expensive to maintain.” It could very well be that the respondents felt that the Budget should contemplate additional use of “under-used” juvenile facilities and reduction in costs rather than elimination of prisons that are “too expensive to maintain.”
With all due respect, saying that something someone feels is unnecessary is the same as what that person believes is “under-used” or “too expensive to maintain” is a pretty big leap in logic.
- 47th Ward - Friday, Mar 9, 12 @ 4:16 pm:
PF, in one question, 68.2% favored cutting unspecified government waste. In the follow-up, when the waste was specified, 70.3% disagreed with the cuts.
This is an example of cognitive dissonance.
- Inconsistent - Friday, Mar 9, 12 @ 4:18 pm:
*I will add that I’m not from southern Illinois, nor do I work at or have any stake in either the poll or any of the facilities that are on the chopping block. Just observing. Thanks.
- 47th Ward - Friday, Mar 9, 12 @ 4:32 pm:
This is also like the judge who famously said:
“I may not be able to define obscenity, but I know it when I see it.”
Government waste is in the eye of the beholder.