We always say that an answer is only as good s a question. Today the MSM will undoubtedly make hay with a PPIC poll question that shows public support for Governor Brown’s proposal to balance the state budget with a plan that includes both spending cuts and higher taxes. They will likely not, however, tell you that the question is skewed in support of the plan…
Here is the exact question:
58% satisfied
29 dissatisfied
7 haven’t heard anything about the budget (volunteered)
5 don’t know
In their "good faith" (??) effort to abbreviate a description of the Governor’s plan into a very sentences, they managed to list areas where cuts would take place, but leave out the fact that no meaningful permanent reforms would be put in place ensure that the state cannot build up extreme defecits like this in the future. The question asserts as fact that the Governor’s plan does not cut spending on K-12 education, even though it actually does. But most importantly, the question specifies some broad and specific areas that would be cut, but excludes specificity on the Governor’s tax increases — namely income, sales and vehicle taxes.
There are some separate questions in the survey that ask about the taxes, and from those we find out that the proposed hike in the income tax, sales tax, and vehicle license fee are opposed, respectively, by 60%, 69%, and 66% of those responding.
According to the survey, voters do support (by 60%) a hike in corporate tax rates.
Without specifying in the question that the taxes that Brown is proposing are the unpopular ones, and omitting the plan’s lack of any meaningful reforms to prevent future overspending, it skews the question towards more positive responses about the plan.
Oh well, this is nothing new. As I always point out, if you ask people if they would like ticket prices slashed at Disneyland, they will always tell you yes. But…