Survey: Michigan residents prefer cuts to revenue sharing, prison spending

by Tom Oswald

April 25, 2003 - Given several options, most Michigan residents prefer cutting revenue sharing to localities (46 percent) and reducing prison spending (31 percent) to address the state’s budget crisis, according to MSU State of the State Survey results released recently.

More than 1,000 Michigan adults were surveyed randomly by telephone on their views on the state budget, government priorities, trust in government and personal financial condition.

“Residents were much less likely to suggest cuts to Medicaid, schools and public colleges in order to balance the budget,” said Carol S. Weissert, director of the MSU Institute for Public Policy and Social Research (IPPSR), which conducted the survey. “And while they were willing to cut spending on prisons, they were opposed to early release of prisoners.”

The study also found an eight-point reduction from 2002 in the number of residents reporting an “excellent” or “good” financial condition. While just more than half of Michiganians (53 percent) said they were doing “excellent” or “good” this year, some 61 percent felt that way last year. Among the findings on Michigan residents’ perceptions:

• 13 percent would reduce spending on public colleges and universities, 5 percent would cut spending for schools and 4 percent would reduce Medicaid spending to reduce the budget deficit.
• 41 percent said the economy and jobs are the most important issue for Michigan’s governor and Legislature; 28 percent said education and schools should be the top priority.
• The Northern Lower Peninsula and southwest were more likely than other regions to list educational issues above economic ones.
• When asked to choose between several options, residents were most likely to prioritize health insurance (46 percent) and improving schools (29 percent) over lowering taxes (17 percent) or making child care more affordable (8 percent).
• White respondents were more likely than African-American residents to say their economic situation was “excellent” or “good” (56 percent versus 42 percent).
• While half of the African-American respondents living in Detroit were not doing much worse than other residents (saying their situation is “good” or “excellent”), those outside of Detroit fared far worse (37 percent).

“The level of concern about the economy and jobs has nearly doubled since our last survey,” said Brian Silver, the survey’s director at IPPSR. “This is the first time we have ever found that residents prioritized economic issues above educational ones since the survey began in 1994.”

The research was part of the 29th round of the State of the State Survey (SOSS) conducted by MSU’s IPPSR. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.1 percent for the Jan. 21-March 10 survey.

An executive summary of results and supplemental figures is available on the IPPSR Web site.