A majority of adults in California would be willing to support the state's health and human services programs by paying higher taxes, according to a poll by the Public Policy Institute of California, HealthyCal reports (HealthyCal, 1/24).
Methodology
The poll was based on telephone interviews conducted in January of 2,002 adult Californians, including 894 likely voters (Gardner, U-T San Diego, 1/24).
The poll's margin of error is plus or minus 3.4 percentage points for all adults and plus or minus 4.2 percentage points for likely voters (Buchanan, San Francisco Chronicle, 1/25).
Key Findings About Health Care
Fifty-seven percent of surveyed adults said they would be willing to pay higher taxes to support safety-net programs, the poll found (HealthyCal, 1/24).
The poll also found that 51% of likely voters said they did not favor cuts to child care, CalWORKs -- the state's welfare-to-work program -- and Medi-Cal, California's Medicaid program, as laid out in Gov. Jerry Brown's (D) budget proposal for fiscal year 2012-2013. Forty-four percent of likely voters said they approved of the proposed cuts (Harmon, San Jose Mercury News, 1/24); and
In addition, 17% of adults said that the area of state spending they most want to protect from budget cuts is health and human services, according to the poll (Central Valley Business Times, 1/24).
Support for Brown's Tax Initiative
The poll noted that 68% of likely voters said they support Brown's tax proposal to temporarily increase the state sales tax and income taxes for Californians earning more than $250,000 annually.
Brown has said his tax plan would generate $35 billion over five years, but the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office estimated that it would raise about $28 billion (San Francisco Chronicle, 1/25).