PROVIDENCE – “In the face of the most serious fiscal predicament since the banking crisis of the early 1990s, Rhode Islanders favor welfare cuts … but are lukewarm to [most] other actions to close the budget gap,” Rhode Island College said today in announcing the results of a recent poll. Of 10 proposals for curbing the state budget deficit, voters favored only three options, were divided on five proposals and strongly opposed the other two.
“In this time of fiscal crisis for our state, it is critical that decision makers have information available from their bosses, the Rhode Island public,” said Victor Profughi, a RIC professor emeritus of political science and the survey’s director.
That public strongly favored two options: imposing a stricter time limit on family welfare payments, by a 39-percent margin; and eliminating the Office of the Lieutenant Governor, by a 31-percent margin. Reducing the maximum time a family can get welfare was strongly favored by 44 percent of respondents and somewhat favored by 22 percent, while 11 percent somewhat disagreed and 16 percent strongly disagreed. Eliminating the state’s No. 2 post was favored strongly by 40 percent and somewhat by 19 percent, while it was opposed somewhat by 11 percent and strongly by 17 percent.
Less-strongly favored was merging RIC with the Community College of Rhode Island to reduce expenses, approved by a 12-percent margin. But the opposition, though outnumbered, was also vehement: 21 percent of respondents said they strongly agreed, 29 percent somewhat agreed, 13 percent somewhat disagreed and 25 percent strongly disagreed.
Residents were sharply divided on around-the-clock gambling in Newport and Lincoln, and on massive layoffs of state workers, each of which was supported by about one in two respondents, and opposed by a nearly identical number.
Opposed by narrow to moderate margins were the release of well-behaved non-sex-offenders from the Adult Correctional Institutions, a plan with which 53 percent disagreed, most strongly, and 43 percent agreed; hiring contract labor to replace some state workers, opposed by 52 percent and favored by 39 percent; and making it harder for poor families to qualify for RIte Care health coverage, a move opposed by 52 percent and supported by 34 percent.
Spurring sharp opposition were cutting non-education aid to the state’s cities and towns by $24 million, opposed by a 41-percent margin, with two-thirds of respondents saying they opposed the idea; and reducing state aid to RIC, CCRI and URI by a total of $17.1 million, forcing them to raise tuition, a move opposed by a 68 percent margin, with more than 8 in 10 voters saying they disagreed or strongly disagreed with the proposal.
The poll of 400 randomly selected voters across the state – was conducted April 17 to 28 by the RIC Bureau of Government Research and Services, an affiliate of the college’s David E. Sweet Center for Public Policy – had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percent at the 95-percent confidence level.
Additional information, is available from the Rhode Island College Bureau of Government Research and Services at www.ric.edu/bgrs. To learn more about the David E. Sweet Center for Public Policy at Rhode Island College, visit www.ric.edu/cpp.
