PPIC Poll: Californians Trust Democrats, Not Schwarzenegger or GOP, to Fix Budget Mess

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

According to a new PPIC poll out today, Californians favor the balanced approach by California Democrats over Governor Schwarzenegger's risky lottery scheme or the GOP's cuts-only approach.

"As residents’ perception of the problem has grown, their faith in the governor to make tough budget choices has declined from 24 percent in January to 17 percent today," notes the survey. "Californians put more trust in legislators to make these choices, with 37 percent preferring the Democrats’ approach and 20 percent preferring the Republicans’ approach. But it’s clear that Californians’ trust is in the legislators of their own parties, rather than in the legislature as a whole. A strong majority of Democrats (63%) want Democratic lawmakers to handle the budget, while nearly half of Republicans (46%) prefer GOP lawmakers’ approach, and one in four (25%) favor the governor’s."

Other highlights:

• Nearly eight in 10 residents are very concerned (42%) or somewhat concerned (36%) about the impact of proposed spending cuts on health and human services. Levels of concern vary widely across party lines and among demographic groups. A majority of Democrats (55%) are very concerned compared to about one in five Republicans (22%) and one in three independents (34%). Latinos (53%) are far more likely than whites (36%) to be very concerned, and women more likely (46%) than men (37%). When asked which area of the budget they most wanted to see spared from cuts, six in 10 residents (61%) choose K-12 public education – the top choice in previous surveys, as well – with health and human services (17%) a distant second, followed by higher education (12%), and prisons and corrections (7%)

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