Poll: PA majority favors cuts, not taxes

A new poll is shedding light on how Pennsylvania residents feel about a possible tax increase, and Harrisburg Democrats may not like what this survey says.

A new poll is shedding light on how Pennsylvania residents feel about a possible tax increase, and Harrisburg Democrats may not like what this survey says.

Listen:
[audio: 090625sdpoll.mp3]

As Democratic leaders have made their case for a tax increase, they’ve argued Pennsylvanians are willing to pay a bit more in order to keep state services.

Here’s Senate Minority Leader Bob Mellow at a Monday press conference.

Mellow: We receive hundreds of emails a day. And those emails, basically, do not ask us not to vote for a tax increase. They ask us to reinstate programs. Tremendous number of emails on Medicaid, on the funding of public libraries, on the funding for public television.

But a new survey from Franklin and Marshall College says 44 percent of poll respondents want lawmakers to cut programs before raising taxes.

That’s compared to 29 percent who would rather see revenues go up.

Governor Rendell says if the poll’s respondents had heard specifics about what would be cut from the budget, they would have been more inclined to support a tax hike.