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Dayton Business Journal...
Poll: Kasich, Sen.
Bill 5 unpopular with voters
by Jeff Bell, DBJ Contributor
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Roughly half of all Ohio voters surveyed in a new poll say they
disapprove of the job Republican John Kasich is doing as governor.
Nearly half of Ohio voters disapprove of Gov. John Kasich’s job
performance and more than half say they favor a repeal of Senate Bill
5, the controversial collective bargaining law that Kasich supports,
according to a poll released Wednesday by Quinnipiac University.
The poll said voters disapprove by a 49-38 percent margin of the job
Kasich is doing. In addition, 54 percent said S.B. 5 should be repealed
while 36 percent support it.
A majority of the 1,379 registered voters surveyed also don’t like how
Kasich has handled the state budget, which calls for deep funding cuts
for public schools, local governments and many state agencies but
closes an $8 billion revenue shortfall without raising taxes. The poll
found 53 percent disapprove of Kasich’s budget strategy while 35
percent support it. Voters, by a 53-36 percent margin, also said the
governor’s budget proposals are unfair to people like them.
Kasich’s large disapproval rate was actually a slight improvement on
his 46-30 percent negative rating in a March poll by Quinnipiac, the
Hamden, Conn.-based university that conducts public opinions polls in
Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Florida, Ohio and
nationally.
“Gov. Kasich’s job approval has ticked up slightly, but he still has a
long way to go to get back even to parity among voters,” Peter Brown,
assistant director of the Quinnipiac Polling Institute, said in a
release. “Most of his increase has come among independents and women
voters who have turned slightly less negative on him.”
Brown also said there appears to be strong support to repeal S.B. 5,
whose opponents are trying to place the issue on Nov. 8 ballot. They
claim the bill is an attack on organized labor and middle-class
families while Kasich and S.B. 5 supporters says the limits it places
on the collective bargaining rights of public workers will give school
boards and local governments a tool to address unsustainable increases
in their labor costs.
“Not only does (Kasich) need to rebuild his image,” Brown said, “but
the governor will need to move a lot of voters over the next six months
if he wants his plan to survive.”
Voters, by a 52-38 percent margin, said limiting collective bargaining
for public employees is not needed to balance the state budget. Among
the poll’s findings were that a ban on strikes by public employees is
opposed by a 58-35 percent margin, while requiring public employees to
pay at least 15 percent of their health insurance premiums is supported
59-34 percent.
Read it with links at the Dayton Business Journal
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