Texans Support Budget Cuts, But Not Cuts in Social Services,

Public Education, Poll Says

AUSTIN, Texas — As the state legislative session nears its end, a

majority of Texas voters continue to support cutting the state

budget, but do not back specific cuts to education and social

programs that have taken center stage at the Capitol, according to

a University of Texas at Austin/Texas Tribune poll.

The statewide poll of 800 registered voters was conducted May

11-18, as the legislature began final discussions about how to

fill a budget gap estimated to be as great as $27 billion. The

overall results of the survey have a margin of error of 3.46

percent.

When asked about how they prefer to balance the budget, 49

percent of Texans leaned toward budget cuts, with an additional 22

percent saying the budget shortfall should be made up entirely

through budget cuts. Another 22 percent said the state’s efforts

should be evenly split between cutting spending and increasing

revenue.

Yet the majority of survey respondents do not support some of the

prominent cuts being considered by the legislature. Only 15

percent favored cutting the state’s share of funding for primary

and secondary education and 27 percent favored cutting state

funding of higher education.

Given a list of possible cuts to balance the budget, 40 percent

of voters favored ending funding for pre-kindergarten classes, the

highest response among the proposed cuts. Thirty-five percent

favored reducing state contributions to teacher and state employee

retirement programs.

“Texans remain consistent in their inconsistency when it comes to

the budget,” said James Henson, director of the Texas Politics

Project and a lecturer in the Department

of Government at The University of Texas at Austin. “The

legislature’s struggle with the budget this session seems to have

had little impact on public opinion about budgetary matters.

Texans still want to cut the budget without reducing spending in

areas where the state spends a lot of money –- especially public

education.”

The poll respondents also opposed most new taxes by large

margins. Ninety-four percent opposed  introducing a state income

tax on individuals and 88 percent opposed increasing the state

sales tax rate beyond the current 6.25 percent. “Sin taxes” had

more support: 49 percent of respondents supported increasing taxes

on alcoholic beverages and 62 percent supported legalizing

gambling and imposing taxes on gambling establishments.

“The results reinforce the conventional wisdom that tax increases

are hugely unpopular with Texans,” said Daron Shaw, professor of

government who also oversees the poll. “But there are some

‘revenue enhancement’ options out there that have public backing.

Increasing ‘sin tax’ rates or even legalizing gambling and taxing

revenues may be on the agenda soon if the state economy doesn’t

turn around.”

This is the latest in a series of online polls conducted by the

Texas Politics Project and the Texas Tribune. The poll

results and methodology will be available at the Texas Politics

Project Web site this week. Additional poll results will be

released and available at the Web site throughout the week.