Tough choices facing governor-elect Corbett

Pennsylvania voters are supportive but skeptical of governor-elect Tom Corbett’s pledge not to raise taxes or fees to balance the state budget.

According to a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday morning, voters are split 47 percent to 44 percent when asked if Mr. Corbett’s “no-tax” pledge is a good idea. However, 65 percent of Pennsylvania voters oppose raising taxes to balance the budget.

Governor-elect Tom Corbett

Despite their opposition to new taxes, 53 percent of voters doubt Mr. Corbett will be able to keep his pledge, while 33 percent say he will keep it.

“Voters would love low taxes and lots of services, so [politicians] have to choose,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. “Those choices are not going to be pleasant ones.”

When it comes to proposed plans for balancing the budget, Pennsylvanians are split over the options to sell state assets and cut state services.

Two-thirds of voters surveyed said they support the privatization of the state liquor stores, but only 36 percent of voters are in favor of leasing the Pennsylvania Turnpike to a private firm.

Mr. Brown said he could not explain why voters would support privatization of some state assets and not others.

According to House Majority Leader-elect Mike Turzai (R-Allegheny), one of the leading proponents of privatizing the liquor stores, the sale of the stores could provide a one-time influx of $2 billion to the state budget. The state would continue to collect revenue from the state stores in future years through taxes.

Pennsylvania faces an estimated budget deficit of more than $4 billion next year, along with increasing public pension payments, more than $3 billion in federal unemployment compensation debt and a $472 million annual budget shortfall for transportation.

By a margin of 51 percent to 41 percent, voters are in favor of laying off state workers to help balance the budget. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, state government jobs have increased by 13,000 in Pennsylvania since December 2002, the month before Gov. Ed Rendell took office. In the same time period, private sector jobs in the state shrunk by 12,500.

When asked to rank their responses from most favorable to least favorable, 54 percent of voters supported selling the state liquor stores as their first choice to balance the budget. Seventeen percent said leasing the turnpike should be the first option, while 14 percent said laying off state workers. Only seven percent favored raising taxes as the first solution to the state budget deficit.

“Obviously, this is a time where there are lots of fiscal challenges. No matter what the options that the new governor picks, it’s going to make some people unhappy,” said Mr. Brown.

Mr. Brown pointed to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), who made major cuts to the state budget during his first year in office yet continues to enjoy an approval rating of more than 50 percent.

As governor-elect Tom Corbett , prepares to take the oath of office in little more than a month, 59 percent of voters said they were optimistic about the next four years.

“Voters historically give the new guy the benefit of the doubt,” said Mr. Brown. “There is a general tendency to give your leaders the opportunity to succeed, and that’s what they are hoping for.”

Mr. Corbett, a Republican, has Democrat voters feeling optimistic as well, by a slim margin of 45 percent to 40 percent.

The survey polled 1,584 Pennsylvania voters between Dec. 6 and Dec. 13, with a margin of error of 2.5 percent.