Legislature gets little respect from state voters in survey
Only 20 percent of registered Michigan voters approved of the Legislature’s job performance, a recent survey shows.LANSING – It’s not a popular time to be a lawmaker in Michigan, new polling results show.
Only 20 percent of registered Michigan voters approved of the Legislature’s job performance in a survey done last month by Raleigh, N.C.-based Public Policy Polling.
The GOP-controlled Legislature is even unpopular among members of the majority party. While respondents who identified as Democrats disapproved of the Legislature 4-to-1, those who consider themselves Republicans disapproved, too, albeit by a smaller margin – 39 percent to 33 percent.
Gov. Rick Snyder fared better – 40 percent of survey respondents approve of the two-term Republican governor, while 47 percent disapprove and 13 percent had no opinion. Unlike lawmakers, however, Republicans overwhelmingly approved of Snyder’s performance.
The Legislature has not yet passed a comprehensive funding plan to fix Michigan’s roads and bridges. In May, voters by a margin of 80 percent to 20 percent trounced a ballot proposal that would have raised the state’s sales and gas taxes while removing the sales tax from fuel sales in an effort to raise $1.2 billion.
Public Policy Polling surveyed 1,072 registered Michigan voters by phone and online between June 25-28.
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