* From a new Public Opinion Strategies poll…

(W)ould you say that things in Illinois are going in the right direction, or have they pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track?

12% RIGHT DIRECTION
82% WRONG TRACK
4% NO OPINION (DO NOT READ)
2% REFUSED (DO NOT READ)

As I’ve said before, I’d really like to know who those 12 percent are.

* Anyway, the American Beverage Association sent me this poll because they wanted to share the results of this question…

As you may know there is a proposal in the Illinois State Legislature to put a one cent per ounce tax on sugar-sweetened beverages including all full-calorie soft drinks and any juice drinks, sports drinks, teas, or flavored waters containing added sugar. For example, under this proposal a ninety nine cent, two-liter bottle of sugar-sweetened drink will be taxed an additional sixty eight cents. This new tax is estimated to raise between $390 to $560 million dollars a year. The revenues would be put into the general fund to help close the five point three billion dollar budget deficit.

Do you favor or oppose this proposed one cent per ounce tax on sweetened beverages? (IF FAVOR/OPPOSE, ASK:) And would you say you STRONGLY (favor/oppose) or just SOMEWHAT (favor/oppose) the tax?

16% STRONGLY FAVOR
18% SOMEWHAT FAVOR
14% SOMEWHAT OPPOSE
48% STRONGLY OPPOSE
3% DON’T KNOW (DO NOT READ)
* REFUSED (DO NOT READ)

34% TOTAL FAVOR
62% TOTAL OPPOSE

That’s quite different from another poll result I shared with you the other day. In that poll, taken for the American Heart Association, the tax was supported 56-41.

* Check out this question…

Every time government faces a problem the first reaction is to take our money with new taxes. And, when the state runs low on money, the tax will go up and up. The Illinois legislature needs to trim their budget fat and leave our grocery budgets alone.

83 percent found that argument convincing, with 62 percent saying it was very convincing.

* After a bunch of those negative statements, they asked the question about the pop tax again and 73 percent would up opposed while just 26 percent were in favor.

* Methodology…

Public Opinion Strategies conducted a statewide telephone survey of registered voters in Illinois on behalf of the American Beverage Association. The survey was completed March 10-13, 2017, among 600 registered voters, including 240 cell phone respondents. The margin of error for a survey of N=600 is ±4.0% in 95 out of 100 cases.