Legislators Should Forgo Pay until Budget Passed
Raleigh, N.C. – As the deadline for passing a new budget nears one month overdue, a new poll released today by the Civitas Institute shows that an overwhelming majority of voters think legislators should stop getting paid until they complete their work on the state’s budget.
According to the live caller poll of 600 voters, 65 percent of voters thought that NC legislators should forego their paychecks if they miss the deadline of passing a budget by the end of the fiscal year. 27 percent said they should continue to get paid. 8 percent of voters were unsure.
“As budget negotiations drag on into the dog days of summer, voters obviously feel elected officials should complete the job they were sent to Raleigh to do,” said Civitas Institute Senior Legislative Analyst Chris Hayes. “The only job required of the General Assembly is to adopt a state budget, if legislators are not going to do that on time, then they should not be compensated for a job they aren’t doing.”
The proposal is supported across all ages, races and political parties, and receives the highest support (75 percent) from government employees.
The Civitas Poll is the only monthly live-caller poll of critical issues facing North Carolina. For more polling information on Civitas polling see www.nccivitas.org/media/poll-results/.
Full text of questions:
NC Legislators are supposed to pass a state budget by July 1st. Do you think legislators should stop getting paid if they miss this deadline until they pass a budget?
Yes – 65%
No – 27%
Not Sure – 8%
Click here for full results and crosstabs.
The study of 600 registered voters was conducted July14-17, 2009 by Tel Opinion Research of Alexandria, Virginia. All respondents were part of a fully representative sample of registered voters in North Carolina. For purposes of this study, voters we interviewed had to have voted in either the 2004, 2006 or 2008 general elections or were newly registered voters since 2008.
The confidence interval associated with a sample of this size is such that: 95 percent of the time, results from 600 interviews (registered voters) will be within +-4% of the “True Values.” True Values refer to the results obtained if it were possible to interview every person in North Carolina who had voted in either the 2004, 2006 or 2008 general elections or were newly registered voters since 2008.
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