PENNSYLVANIA Poll: Many favor more taxes for schools

Public opinion for both the governor and legislature is declining.
HARRISBURG (AP) -- Only 38 percent of Pennsylvania voters consider themselves better off financially than they were a year ago, but half are willing to pay higher income taxes if that increases subsidies for public schools, according to a poll released today.
Fifty-two percent of the 1,092 respondents said they favor a proposal to increase the state's flat income-tax rate from 2.8 percent to around 3 percent, compared with 42 percent against it. Asked whether they would support a bigger increase if it benefited schools, 50 percent said yes and 43 percent said no, according to the survey by the Connecticut-based Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
The latest results varied only slightly from the response to a similar question in an April survey by the same pollster that linked the extra income-tax revenue to both education and property-tax relief.
"Very seldom in polling do you see this kind of constant support for a tax increase. It only happens when there is something the voters want badly," said Clay F. Richards, the institute's assistant director.
Seeking a resolution
Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell and leaders of the Republican-controlled Legislature are trying to negotiate a resolution to a stalemate that has held up more than $4 billion in school subsidies since July 1.
In the private talks, Rendell reportedly has said he wants to increase the income tax to at least 3.1 percent -- compared with the 3.75 percent he originally proposed -- to finance learning initiatives he promised during his election campaign and to cover other fiscal needs. Senate Republicans, who blocked a compromise Rendell negotiated with House leaders, want the new rate to be held to less than 3 percent.
The poll showed that public approval for both the governor and the Legislature has continued a general decline as the budget deadlock stretched into December.
Only 46 percent approved of Rendell's performance -- his lowest rating since he took office in January -- while 34 percent disapproved.
For the first time in at least nine months, more people disapproved of the Legislature's performance than approved of it -- 44 percent to 38 percent.
At the same time, 54 percent of the respondents said they were satisfied with the way things are going in Pennsylvania. Thirty-eight percent said they were better off financially than they were a year ago, 35 percent said they were worse off, and 27 percent said their situation had not changed.
The telephone survey of registered voters was conducted between Thursday and Sunday. It carries a sampling-error margin of plus or minus three percentage points.
Erik Arneson, chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader David J. Brightbill, R- Lebanon, said the margin of support for an income-tax increase that the poll detected is too narrow to be interpreted as a mandate.
Rendell's spokeswoman, Kate Philips, argued that the findings reflect unflagging popular support for her boss's programs.