Amidst $1 billion in budget vetoes, support for governor’s gas tax is dismal
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 15, 2019
CONTACT
Tom Shields: Mobile: 517-449-9810, toms@mrgmi.com
Jenell Leonard: Mobile: 765-210-7971, jleonard@mrgmi.com
LANSING, Mich. –Even amidst the governor’s recent budget vetoes of nearly one billion dollars, her forty-five-cent gas tax increase is still underwater, according to the latest statewide poll conducted by Marketing Resource Group (MRG). Sixty-two percent of those surveyed believe the governor and legislature should renegotiate budget veto’s without raising the gas tax, compared to the 13 percent who support raising the gas tax in an effort to renegotiate the budget vetoes. Eighteen percent of voters believe the vetoes should stand and money be refunded to taxpayers.
“Only 13 percent say they support both the gas tax and renegotiating the budget vetoes, but nearly 80 percent said either renegotiate without raising taxes, or give me my money back,” said Jenell Leonard, owner of MRG, LLC. “It’s obvious the governor needs to come back to the table to renegotiate a budget that does not include a massive tax increase.”
In the MRG Michigan Poll® conducted in May, seventy-five percent of Michigan voters said they oppose governor Whitmer’s proposed forty-five cent gas tax hike. More than sixty percent of the voters said they strongly opposed her gas tax proposal.
“Not much has changed when it comes to the voters’ sentiment about the governor’s proposed gas tax increase,” said Tom Shields, MRG’s Senior Advisor. “This veto ploy appears to have little support, even among her base.”
Every geographic area and every demographic and political group of voters believe the legislature should renegotiate the budget vetoes without raising taxes. The most support for a tax increase as part of the veto negotiations actually came from West Michigan where 21 percent of the voters were in support.
Politically, only 20% of the Democrats supported raising the gas tax as part of the budget negotiations. Ninety-one percent of the Republicans supported either renegotiating the vetoes without a gas tax or just giving the voters their money back.
The actual wording of the budget veto/gas tax question is below:
As you may know, Governor Whitmer has vetoed almost $1 billion from the budget that was passed by the legislature in part because the legislature refused to pass her proposed 45 cent per gallon increase in the state’s gasoline tax to raise additional funds to repair the roads. The budget veto included funds for roads, education and law enforcement. Do you think the legislature should A) Pass the 45-cent gas tax increase and negotiate to renew the funds she vetoed, B) Not pass the gas tax increase and try to renegotiate with the Governor to renew some of the funds that were vetoed or, C) Let the veto stand and consider cutting taxes to refund the vetoed funds to the taxpayers?
A.) Raise gas taxes and renegotiate 12.5 %
B.) Don’t raise gas taxes and try to renegotiate 61.5 %
C.) Let veto stand and consider refunding funds to taxpayers 18.2 %
Something else 2.0 %
Don’t know 5.5 %
Refused 0.3 %
Party Identification
| Democrat | Independent | Republican | |
| Raise gas tax and negotiate | 20% | 13% | 4% |
| Don’t raise gas Tax and negotiate | 56% | 63% | 67% |
| Let veto stand and cut taxes | 13% | 17% | 24% |
Age
| 18-34 | 35-44 | 45-64 | 65+ | |
| Raise gas tax and negotiate | 13% | 12% | 15% | 8% |
| Don’t raise gas tax and negotiate | 62% | 68% | 59% | 62% |
| Let veto stand and cut taxes | 15% | 19% | 19% | 20% |
Geographic Location
| City of Detroit | Balance of Wayne County | Oakland County | Macomb County | Balance of Detroit SMSA | Mid-Michigan | West Michigan | Tri-Cities/ Thumb | North Lower Michigan | Upper Peninsula | |
| Raise gas tax & Neg. | 9% | 10% | 16% | 8% | 13% | 9% | 21% | 6% | 11% | 6% |
| Do not raise gas & neg. | 60% | 60% | 61% | 62% | 66% | 67% | 53% | 69% | 60% | 72% |
| Let veto stand & refund | 20% | 21% | 18% | 17% | 13% | 15% | 19% | 18% | 24% | 17% |
If anyone in the media would like additional numbers or cross tabs, please do not hesitate to contact us.
MRG Michigan Poll® Fall 2019
The survey of 600 likely Michigan voters was conducted by live interview October 7-10, 2019. The sample was randomly drawn from a listed sample of all registered voters with a history of voting and stratified by city and township to reflect voter turnout. 30% of the sample was conducted with cell phone dominant households. In addition, quotas for gender and cell phone interviews were met within each geographic area, and extra efforts were made to reach African Americans.
A sample of 600 likely voters in Michigan yields a sampling margin of error of ±4 percent with a 95 percent confidence interval. The sampling margin of error for subgroups may be higher depending on the size of the subgroup.
About Marketing Resource Group, LLC.
Lansing, Michigan-based Marketing Resource Group, LLC. (www.mrgmi.com) is an award-winning PR firm representing corporate, association, nonprofit, and private clients with interests in Michigan. MRG offers expertise in public affairs, communications, political campaign management, and public opinion survey research. For more than thirty years, MRG has conducted its bi-annual omnibus Michigan Poll®, tracking the pulse of Michigan voters on key statewide public policy and political issues. MRG is the only Michigan public opinion survey research firm that maintains nearly 30 years of trend analyses of voter attitudes related to state and national leaders, political parties, and the political and economic climate in Michigan.
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