Poll: Majority support repeal of SB 5

COLUMBUS — A majority of Ohioans believe controversial collective bargaining reform signed into law by Gov. John Kasich should be repealed.

And more Ohio voters disapprove of the job Kasich is doing, including his handling of the state budget.

That’s according to the latest survey by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

“Gov. John 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 A. Brown, assistant director of the institute, said in a released statement.

Connecticut-based Quinnipiac regularly gauges Ohioans’ opinions of candidates and issues. It polled 1,379 registered voters over the past week; the results have a margin of error of about 2.6 percent.

Overall, Kasich’s approval ratings have risen slightly, though 49 percent of voters still disapprove of his work in office, versus 38 percent now approve of it. That compares to a 46 percent disapproval-30 percent approval in March.

But 53 percent said they disapproved of his handling of the state budget and Kasich’s proposals are unfair.

Fifty-four percent also said they believed Senate Bill 5 should be repealed, versus 36 percent who said the new law should go into effect.

The legislation was signed into law by Kasich but is on hold pending a referendum effort, with union groups collecting signatures with hopes of placing it before voters in November.

“Although it is a long way until November when opponents of SB 5 hope to ask voters to overturn it, at this point there is strong support for repealing Gov. Kasich’s signature plan,” Brown said. “Not only does he need to rebuild his image, but the governor will need to move a lot of voters over the next six months if he wants his plan to survive.”

Voters supported portions of the new law but opposed others. Half or more of those polled opposed banning strikes by public workers, preventing those workers from negotiating health care benefits and eliminating seniority as a the sole factor in layoffs.

But comparable margins supported requiring public employees to pay at least 15 percent of their health insurance premiums and at least 10 percent of their wages for pensions and replacing automatic pay increases with raises based on employee performance.