Survey: More Louisianans say state headed in wrong direction

An increasing number of Louisianans say the state is headed in the wrong direction and that they’re not confident in the state government to effectively address their most pressing concerns, according to survey results released today by the LSU Public Policy Research Lab. The survey, which included 930 respondents, found 52% of state residents said Louisiana is headed in the wrong direction. That’s up from 39% who said the same in a PPRL survey last year. Meanwhile, 39% of respondents to the 2013 survey said they are “very confident” or “somewhat confident” that the state government can effectively address the most important problems, compared to 48% who said the same last year. There’s also been a shift over the past year in regards to which problems respondents identified as the most pressing. In 2012, 34% of residents said the economy was the state’s most important problem. That number dropped to 25% this year. At the same time, residents identifying politics as the state’s most important problem increased from 7% in 2012 to 14% this year. And those who said the state budget is the most important problem increased from 7% last year to 11% in the new survey. The survey is the second released today reflecting pessimism about the state’s direction. The results of an unrelated survey conducted by Southern Media Opinion & Research show 48% of respondents said conditions are getting worse, compared to 20% who said they’re getting better and 30% who said they’re about the same.