Salt Lake City, UT (January 31, 2018) — Libertas Institute today announces the results of a new poll that indicates the two tax increases proposed under the Our Schools Now initiative effort stand to fail when voters learn about their impact.
Initial support of the initiative stands at 49.39% support with 44.28% opposed.
But after being asked a series of questions related to the ballot initiative on teacher pay, cost per Utah family, and impact on middle and lower income families, voters were asked the initiative support question a second time to see if these additional information affected their opinion of the initiative.
Support for the initiative dropped to 36.08%, with 58.12% opposed.
Details of the poll can be found here.
The survey was conducted by the Trafalgar Group (TFG), recognized for having the most accurate polling in the 2016 battleground states and Electoral College projection. The poll had 1,115 respondents from a random stratified selection of likely 2018 General Election voters in Utah and has a margin of error of 2.93%.
Commenting on the survey, Libertas Institute president Connor Boyack said, “While a very slight majority of people say they support the initiative at present, this data indicates the support is very weak—and falls apart when voters realize the significant impact the two tax increases would have on their family budget.”
Boyack continued, “While many people support paying teachers more and helping students gain a better education, there are numerous ways to accommodate these efforts within existing budgets. Unfortunately, some advocates want to avoid the effort by simply taking more money from Utahns—and as the data indicates, once voters realize what they’re being asked to give up, they’re likely to vote against the initiative.”
Today’s poll follows a similar one a year ago, similarly showing an extremely narrow margin of support for the tax increase proposal.