PPIC Statewide Survey: Special Survey on the California State Budget, January 2005
Mark Baldassare

January 2005

Some findings of the current survey

• A vast majority of California’s likely voters (76%) view the state’s multibillion dollar fiscal gap between revenues and spending as a big problem.
• Californians are fed up with the state’s fiscal fiasco, and they don’t trust the governor or legislature to resolve the problem: An overwhelming majority (68%) believe that voters should make decisions about the budget process at the ballot box, rather than abdicate that responsibility to the governor and legislature.
• A majority of residents (69%) support raising the tax rate on the state’s top income bracket.
• Most residents (73%) express concern about the effects of budget cuts in the governor’s plan.
• Few residents (29%) believe that the Social Security program is in crisis, although 42% do agree that the program has major problems.
• 46% of the state’s residents think that the Bush administration’s proposal to allow people to invest their Social Security contributions in the stock market is a bad idea.

This survey is the fourth in a series of special PPIC Statewide Surveys on the California State Budget and Fiscal System, begun in June 2003 and conducted in collaboration with The James Irvine Foundation. The intent of this series is to raise public awareness, inform decisionmakers, and stimulate public discussion about the current state budget and the underlying state and local finance system.