A poll this guy would have loved

My reaction earlier to the Philadelphia Research Initiative’s latest poll from an email that I sent to folks on our news team:

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And this is why I hate issue based polls:

At the same time, Philadelphians give city officials little guidance about how the budget should be balanced.  Fewer services would mean fewer city workers, but 62 percent oppose even a 1 percent cut in the city workforce.

I’m reminded of a classic West Wing moment regarding a poll about foreign aid:

Will: You like that stat.
Josh: I do.
Will: Why?
Josh: Because 9% think it’s too high and shouldn’t be cut. 9% of respondents could not fully get their arms around the question. There should be another box you can check for “I have utterly no idea what you’re talking about. Please, God, don’t ask for my input.”

I know this is on FM’s agenda today… I kinda wish someone could work this sound bite into their story…
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Unfortunately, the West Wing bite didn’t make it in. (Also, it turns out it’s not the first time I’ve used it when referring to polls.)  But Larry Eichel, head of the Research Initiative, did come close:

We asked people for their opinion on the mayor’s proposal to reduce the workforce by 1 percent and obviously if you’re going to reduce services you’re going to need fewer people to deliver them and yet by a 2 to 1 ratio people tell us they’re against trimming the size of the city workforce. So in some ways I’m not sure people know what they want.

(Emphasis mine)

To her credit, WHYY’s Elizabeth Fiedler was able to get some context into this story by reminding us that:

The poll results differ from data collected at community budget forums where participants said they’d oppose service cuts, but be willing to accept tax increases.

Full disclosure, WHYY ran those forums.  More than anything this shows the flaw in using polling to gauge public opinion about a policy decision and then base the policy decision on that poll.  Nowhere in my whole life have I ever seen a poll that says “75 percent of people favor raising taxes” that didn’t somehow lead respondents to that answer.

It would be easy for me to make fun of the residents and call them ignorant.  But really, it falls to the government to show the public why doing the best public policy is more important than doing the politically expedient thing.

(On a separate note, here’s a link to a WHYY story about Bill Green’s idea to extend loans for weatherization upgrades to middle income families who are ineligible by federal guidelines because they earn too much.  Just proud of the headline, is all.)