To Balance Ohio’s Budget, Poll Shows Voters’ First Choice Is To Cut Pay Of Government Workers

It looks like Ohio’s next two year budget will have a deficit of at least $8 billion. A survey of 1800 Ohio registered voters shows that 50% of voters think that the best way for Ohio to balance its next budget is to reduce the compensation of government workers. The scientific survey was commissioned by the Buckeye Institute and purports to have a margin of error of only +/- of 2.3%.

In this survey, 41% of respondents indicated they are “Independent,” 40% indicated they are “Conservative,” and 19% indicated they “Liberal.” And in the survey, 40% of respondents identified themselves as a Democrat, 32% identified themselves as Independent, and 28% identified themselves as Republican.

The second priority chosen by respondents for balancing Ohio’s budget was “Cutting government services,” chosen by 27%. Only 16% of respondents said they would support the option of raising taxes.

Here are some other questions:

“Do you think Ohio workers should be required to join a labor union in order to get a job or should Ohio workers have the freedom to choose whether or not to join a labor union in order to get a job?”

• Freedom to choose whether to join labor union  85%
• Required to join labor union ………………………….12%
• No opinion …………………………………………………..  3%

In your opinion, should the pay, benefits, job protections, and pensions of government workers be higher, the same, or lower than private sector workers in Ohio

• Same as private sector workers……. 73%
• Lower than private sector workers.. 14%
• Higher than private sector workers….8%
• No Opinion ……………………………….     5%

With over 83% of Ohio’s energy coming from coal, do you think Ohio should incur higher energy costs by moving to solar and wind energy, add more nuclear and natural gas energy, or stick with coal to keep energy costs down?

• Stick with coal to keep costs down……………….38%
• Add more nuclear and natural gas energy ……29%
• Move to solar and wind energy…………………… 28%
• No Opinion ……………………………………………..    5%