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Ask a stupid question…

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Illinois
Polls

* Press release…

Most Illinois voters say the state budget stalemate is not having an impact on their lives, according to a new poll by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

Voters also remain divided over how to fix the state’s budget woes. There are 44 percent who favor cuts, 12 percent who favor tax increases and 33 percent who favor both.

Except respondents weren’t asked about actual “cuts.”

* The question…

The state of Illinois has a budget deficit of over 9 billion dollars. I’m going to read three statements that people have made about how to fix the deficit, and ask you which one comes closest to your views. If you haven’t though much about this issue, just tell me that.

· Illinois’ public programs and services have already been reduced significantly. We can only fix the problem by taking in more revenue, such as a tax increase. (12.1%)
· The state takes in plenty of money to pay for public services, but wastes it on unnecessary programs. We can only fix the problem by cutting waste and inefficiency in government. (43.9%)
· Illinois’ budget problem is so large it can only be solved by a combination of budget cuts and revenue increases. (33.1%)

Emphasis added because when you phrase a question like that, of course people are gonna choose cutting all that wasteful spending from that horrible state government. Give them a list of $9 billion in program cuts, however, and you’ll watch them run away screaming in panic like most legislators do.

Garbage in, garbage out.

C’mon, man.

posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Oct 12, 16 @ 10:33 am

Comments

Please define wasteful spending. What is wasteful to one person is a lifeline to another person so please define…

Comment by Mama's Time- out Wednesday, Oct 12, 16 @ 10:43 am
Should we ask if we should raise taxes to pay for public sector pensions since there is where all the new money will go?

Comment by Ahoy! Wednesday, Oct 12, 16 @ 10:47 am
Huffington Post did a deeper dig a few years ago on the Fed side of W&I perceptions. Might be something to adapt to Illinois (hint, hint Paul Simon Institute). Could even use Rauner’s incomplete budgets as a starting point to show Illinoisans exactly what he considered Waste and Inefficiencies.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/18/wasteful-spending-poll_n_2886081.html

Comment by Anon221 Wednesday, Oct 12, 16 @ 10:47 am
In our ever growing self centered culture, unless something directly impacts you or your family, it is of no consequence. Not my problem has become an anthem some sing. Social consciousness seems to be dead, or dying. That’s why all the whining about the cost of Education. Everyone cares desperately about quality education when they or their children are in school. Once gone, they don’t feel the need to pay one red cent. And some who are in school, or have kids in school seem to think that privilege is something that no one should have to pay for.

Comment by Anonymous Wednesday, Oct 12, 16 @ 10:51 am
Ahoy

YOu mean replace the money that should have gone to public pensions because it never went into them in the first place?

Comment by Anonymous Wednesday, Oct 12, 16 @ 10:52 am
Most of the low hanging fruit has already been picked. As you reach higher into the tree, the screams and the impact of those cuts increase greatly!

Comment by facts are stubborn things Wednesday, Oct 12, 16 @ 11:05 am
Momma, I can define “wasteful spending” for you; its anything I don’t want tax dollars to be spent on or that does not benefit me directly. There you go!

/s/

Comment by Tommydanger Wednesday, Oct 12, 16 @ 11:14 am
I ask my friends why didn’t Rauner veto all this wasteful spending and layoff all these unnecessary lazy state workers…never have had a response.

Comment by Liberty Wednesday, Oct 12, 16 @ 11:20 am
It’s actually pretty embarrassing that a university based research institution would ask a question like that. It would be great if they had the academic integrity to explain why they chose that wording and to respond to the valid criticism in this post.

Comment by Moe Berg Wednesday, Oct 12, 16 @ 11:20 am
Cuts- yeah, okay. There’s a man walking down the hall to an interview booth two doors down from me. He’s got everything he owns in a black plastic bag.

Natural instinct is to look away.
Better yet to never get near “problems”.

We’re a symbiotic system folks.
“problems” don’t go away.
They always come back.
always.

Deal with it now.

Repair the foundation of our society.

Comment by Honeybear Wednesday, Oct 12, 16 @ 11:24 am
Polling has increasingly become a profit center for institutions and as a result poll results have increasingly become a source of heat but not necessarily of light. I soured on polling a number of years ago in grad school when I found out how it is done and how easily it can be manipulated (intentionally or sometimes completely innocently) by how the question words are chosen and how the the subjects are gathered. Polling has only gotten worse since then.

Comment by Responsa Wednesday, Oct 12, 16 @ 11:36 am
I think something being lost here is the financier isn’t trying to move a needle. They are trying to measure the mood.

As for the results…I find it interesting 42 percent of respondents say taxes have to be at least part of the solution.

I’m also discouraged more than 60 percent of the population believes they are unaffected by the budget. That makes the 42 percent figure all the more interesting.

Comment by Dirty Red Wednesday, Oct 12, 16 @ 11:45 am
= It’s actually pretty embarrassing that a university based research institution would ask a question like that. =

Why? They aren’t advocating one way or the other. It’s a viewpoint I hear fairly regularly.

Comment by Dirty Red Wednesday, Oct 12, 16 @ 11:47 am
===It’s a viewpoint I hear fairly regularly===

Yeah, but they shouldn’t be reinforcing that goofy view. Look at the press release. C’mon.

Comment by Rich Miller Wednesday, Oct 12, 16 @ 11:53 am
This is surprising coming from the Paul Simon Institute. Over the past several years, they have done excellent in-depth analyses of this very issue and pointed out in a paper published in June of this year that the basis of the current gridlock is in the naive belief about cuts to waste, fraud, and abuse. http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/ppi_papers/47/

Comment by Pot calling kettle Wednesday, Oct 12, 16 @ 11:55 am
I’m a libertarian that generally opposes taxes on labor income on principle, but even I would agree that more tax revenues are necessary in addition to more cost cutting to start climbing out of this mess.

Very few Democrats are out their selling the need for tax increases to the general public, so this result isn’t surprising. If Madigan and the leadership are too afraid to strongly tout the need for more taxes, how can you expect the public to come around on the issue?

Comment by Jeff Trigg Wednesday, Oct 12, 16 @ 12:39 pm
== If Madigan and the leadership are too afraid to strongly tout the need for more taxes, how can you expect the public to come around on the issue? ==

Madigan and the other Democrats aren’t going to push that theme until Rauner is on the same page and publicly pushing it as much as the Gov has pushed the TA agenda. In other words, they need the equivalent of a Mutual Assured Destruction pact.

Until that happens, all the Democrats would be doing is handing political ammuntion to the other side.

Comment by RNUG Wednesday, Oct 12, 16 @ 1:20 pm
I was Paul Simon’s grad assistant at the Public Policy Inst. 2001-2003. So this saddens me to say that their last 3 or 4 polls and the wording they utilize has been less than stellar. Charlie knows better.

Comment by Southern Dawg1 Wednesday, Oct 12, 16 @ 2:12 pm
– YOu mean replace the money that should have gone to public pensions because it never went into them in the first place? —

Print the bumper stickers. That’ll sell.

Comment by JB13 Wednesday, Oct 12, 16 @ 5:12 pm
“Give them a list of $9 billion in program cuts, however, and you’ll watch them run away screaming in panic……”

Give them a list of how new tax revenues will be spent and observe their reaction.

Comment by CapnCrunch Wednesday, Oct 12, 16 @ 5:29 pm
==Repair the foundation of our society==
Honeybear, I defer to your schooling and experience in this matter. However, isn’t it true that since about 1964 (the start of “The Great Society”), the U.S. Government has spent an amount of money nearly totaling the current national debt on poverty-reducing programs? And, isn’t it also true that the poverty rate has only gone down slightly in that same period (from about 17% to 16%)? Whatever we’ve been doing for fifty years to reduce poverty, hasn’t exactly been effective, and it’s put a heckuva dent in our ability to stay competitive in the world - we’ve done nothing but build a larger, angrier, generational underclass with our efforts. As long as we entice, reward, and enable irresponsible people to reproduce, we’re never going to run out of irresponsible people.

Comment by Tom K. Wednesday, Oct 12, 16 @ 9:22 pm
Honey. Give specifics on how we repair the fabric.

Comment by Blue dog dem Wednesday, Oct 12, 16 @ 9:56 pm
Let’s look at the real issue of the budget mess. 8 years ago Illinois had 996,000 people on Medicaid now Illinois has 3.2 million yes million people on Medicaid with less state workers. That is 3 times more receiving state services and less workers to care for the needs. Look at the states around Illinois. Illinois has less state workers per capita than other states. The cost is not solely administrative and the employees did not cause the shortfall in the pensions. We are paying for healthcare for more people. The staff cost is a minor percentage compared to the medical care and other assistance of the 3.2 million on Medicaid. 36,000 workers cannot make up the cost for 3.2 million. It is mathematically impossible.

Comment by Niugal Wednesday, Oct 12, 16 @ 10:16 pm
That is true, state workers have paid their part. The state has often missed their payments and this has happened over decades.

I think it is also worth noting that last time I looked Illinois was something like the 6th most populace state in the country, so we have fewer state workers, but more people to serve.!

Comment by PeriwinkleP Thursday, Oct 13, 16 @ 7:44 am