Raleigh, N.C. – Amidst a record budget deficit, 67 percent of North Carolina voters support a Taxpayer Bill of Rights that would tie annual spending growth to population plus inflation in order to limit state spending, according to a new poll released today by the Civitas Institute.
A North Carolina Legislator recently introduced House Bill 188, a Taxpayer Bill of Rights, that would limit state spending to average population and inflation increase over the last 3 years and create an emergency reserve fund. Sixty-seven percent of voters said they support such legislation, 18 percent oppose it, and 15 percent said they do not know or have no opinion.
Support for the Taxpayer Bill of Rights has remained consistent since an April 2010 Civitas poll which found voters supported the idea by a 66 percent – 14 percent margin.
“Long-term, out of control spending has gotten North Carolina into a very serious fiscal crisis and voters are looking for a common sense approach to limit state spending while preparing for the future,” said Civitas Institute President Francis De Luca.
The Civitas Poll is the only monthly live-caller poll of critical issues facing North Carolina. For more information on Civitas polling see http://www.nccivitas.org/category/poll/.
Full text of question:
“Would you support or oppose the recently introduced Taxpayer Bill of Rights in the North Carolina Legislature that would limit the growth of state spending to the average inflation and population increase over the last 3 years, create an emergency reserve trust fund to support state spending if there is a shortfall, and require a two-thirds vote of the Legislature to spend in excess of the limitation in any given year?”
Total Support – 67%
Total Oppose – 18%
Strongly Support – 36%
Somewhat Support – 31%
Somewhat Oppose – 9%
Strongly Oppose – 9%
Don’t Know/ No Opinion – 15%
Click here for full results and crosstabs.
This poll of 600 registered general election voters in North Carolina was conducted March 14-16 by National Research, Inc. of Holmdel, NJ. All respondents were part of a fully representative sample of registered voters in North Carolina. For purposes of this study, voters interviewed had to have voted in two of the past four general elections or were newly registered to vote 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 two of the past four general elections or were newly registered to vote since 2008.
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