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, according to a new public opinion poll released this morning by LSU’s Public Policy Research Lab.
Forty-four percent of respondents believe the state is headed in the right direction, while 45% believe it is headed in the wrong direction, according to the 2015 Louisiana Survey. While those figures may not sound terribly encouraging, they represent an improvement over two years ago, when just 38% of respondents believed the state was headed in the right direction.
“From 2008-2013 the general trend was more people saying the state was heading in the wrong direction and fewer people saying it was heading in the right direction,” says Michael Henderson, research director of PPRL. “In fact, wrong direction outpolled right direction by 14 points in 2013. Today, that gap has vanished.”
In other key findings, the survey shows respondents agree on the state’s most pressing problems: education, cited by 25% of respondents, and the economy, cited by 23%. Fewer than half of those polled have confidence in state government’s ability to deal with those problems, though data shows their level of confidence is no longer eroding, as it did for the previous five years.
The recent changes in the public’s perceptions about the direction of the state and their confidence in government may have to with evaluations of the Louisiana economy. About 25% say state business conditions are better than a year ago, while 25% say they are worse. Although those responses do not reflect overwhelming economic optimism, they do reflect a rising sense that the state’s economy is improving, the study shows.
Baton Rouge area residents were the most optimistic about improvements to the state economy. Some 45% of Baton Rouge respondents say state business conditions are better than one year ago, and 34% say they’re about the same. By contrast, residents of southwest Louisiana—with a regional economy especially sensitive to the rise and fall of oil prices—have far more mixed assessments.
The Louisiana Survey is conducted annually to understand the opinions of Louisiana residents and share those opinions with state lawmakers.
—Stephanie Riegel
