Eighty-three percent of Louisiana residents want to see the current state budget shortfall resolved through a combination of spending cuts and tax increases, though they oppose specific cuts to areas including higher education and health care.
Those are among the findings of the 2015 Louisiana Survey, which is conducted annually by LSU’s Public Policy Research Lab and tracks trends in Louisiana residents’ attitudes about conditions in the state. Additional findings about what Louisianans think of the state’s budget situation include:
- The public wants more spending—not less—in areas such as elementary and secondary education, higher education, transportation and health care.
- Nearly two‐thirds of residents, 63%, say the state government—rather than college students and their families—should play the major role in funding higher education.
- There is little support for raising most specific taxes. The tax increases with the most support are tobacco taxes, at 50%; taxes on the gaming industry, at 49%; and alcohol taxes, at 42%.
- The public is poorly informed about most fiscal facts. Contrary to actual revenue and expenditure trends over the past seven years, 54% believe state taxes have gone up over this period. On the spending side, 30% say state government spending has “gone up a lot.”
“This puts policy makers in a real bind,” says Michael Henderson, research director of the Public Policy Research Lab, in a news release issued this morning. “On the one hand the public says they support spending cuts and tax increases in general—especially spending cuts—but when you get down to it they simply do not back most specific reductions. They do not want to cut education. They do not want to cut health care.”
The findings released this morning focus on the state budget. They come as lawmakers prepare to address an estimated $1.6 billion budget shortfall for the coming fiscal year, which begins July 1. Findings of the 2015 Louisiana Survey released last week show public perceptions about the direction of the state have improved slightly over the past two years, though fewer than half of Louisiana residents believe the state is headed in the right direction.
