Ask and ye shall receive. Not thirty minutes ago, I was noting that if people had tips or hot information, they could pass it my way. And get a load of this executive summary for a poll that a friend in Pierre just passed my way.
The bottom line? I don’t know if I’d want to stand in front of the 1/2 cent of sales tax for education. Because that train might just run you over.
As noted – Public Opinion Strategies conducted a statewide survey of 500 likely voters in South Dakota. The survey was conducted by landline and cell phone, using live interviewers, December 3-6, 2015. Thirty percent (30%) of interviews were conducted with cell phone respondents. The margin of error for this survey is +4.38% in 95 out of 100 cases.
South Dakota voters overwhelmingly believe teachers in the state deserve a pay raise, and a solid majority favor increasing the state sales tax, with the money going to increase teacher salaries.
A whopping 86% of voters say teachers in South Dakota deserve a pay raise, while just 11% say they do not.
Nearly three-in-four voters (71%) say they favor an increase of a half cent in the state sales tax to increase teacher salaries, including 54% who strongly favor such a proposal. Just 26% oppose it. Among key subgroups:
- Sixty-eight percent (68%) of Republicans, 72% of Independents, and 76% of Democrats favor the proposal.
- Strong majorities back the proposal in both East River (72%) and West River (70%).
- Voters of all ideological stripes back the proposal, including 66% of conservatives, 74% of moderates, and 87% of liberals.
The Bottom Line
South Dakota voters overwhelmingly say teachers in the state deserve a pay raise. And, despite the conservative tilt of the Mount Rushmore State, there is one tax increase that a large majority of voters can support: a half cent sales tax increase to go toward increasing the pay of South Dakota’s teachers.
Bipartisan majorities and voters across the ideological spectrum back the proposal, as do voters across the state.
People can complain about raising taxes all they want, but if this poll from Public Opinion Strategies, one of the top polling firms in the nation, is to be believed, the Governor’s proposal has more than significant public sentiment behind it. It has near universal support across the state.
Read the executive memo for the poll yourself and let us know what you think. As I said, I’m not sure I’d want to be in the way on this one.
Fine. But it will never be enough.
Who commissioned the poll? The Gov’s office?
I think most people agree that we should pay teachers more, and I believe most people are fine paying an extra half-cent on sales tax to do it. But I think a lot of people (and legislators) aren’t convinced that this will actually do what is intended. Only the school districts can dictate how much teachers get paid so you can’t guarantee that this half-cent will indeed increase pay.
The poll results have nothing to do with the Govenor’s proposal. But we do know the influence of a banner ad !
Well I’ll be damned. But I bet you $10 and a sausage breakfast those teachers will not stop whining.
I am a teacher. I have not whined about my salary. I will tell you though if you believe you can pay people sub-standard wages and keep quality people, you are kidding yourself. When I went into education, I knew what kind of salary to expect. If a raise comes my way, of course I will take it. But in this case I did not ask for it. Teachers who live close to the borders of neighboring states seriously consider moves.
This is not unique to education. It also happens in private enterprise. An example is my daughter. As a chemical engineer, she was working for a company that has a high turnover rate in that area. Why? Because after a couple of years of experience, the engineers can go someplace else. In my daughter’s case, she will make $15,000 more than what she did before and work less hours. This is just human nature.
My concern is whether the raised money will go to what it is intended to. I believe if the increase happens, it needs to be earmarked for its specific intention.
As an alternative, what is the tax on motels and hotels in this state? I know when I go to Minneapolis I get socked with a very nice service tax. I think we should return the favor.
There is a way and it sure isn’t rocket science. Take the last 10 years of each districts percentage increase in their overall teacher salaries. Mandate that the average of those percentage increases must be maintained going forward in order for that district to receive the extra money from the State. Along with that the Legislature can create legal benchmarks for every district’s average teacher pay also in order to receive the money. I agree with the writer above who stated that if legislated benchmarks and placement of this money is not put into law the school boards will shuffle some of it into reserves. They are beholden to the taxpayer. No different than capping reserves legislatively.
And I continue knowing the summer six month one penny is better for South Dakotan’s than any year long.
With regard to the poll, I don’t remember seeing any issue in which it so clearly crossed idealogical and/or political party boundaries, especially since it included a question on the taxing source and the Democrats supported a sales tax increase at a higher percentage than Republicans.
Public Opinion Strategies is an independent organization, but identifies itself as a Republican polling firm.
It’s always interesting to dive into the details of a poll to see how the respondents were selected and how/whether the poll was adjusted to reflect the presumed makeup of the electorate (esp. as to political party). Also, are these respondents “likely voters” or random residents? How politically active are they, if at all?
It would also be nice to know who commissioned the poll, but one seldom gets to know that.
It is nice to see the margin of error being reported along with the confidence index. Margins of error reported without confidence indices are technically incomplete information.
Public Opinion Strategies is one of the better national polling firms, and they’ve proven their numbers track South Dakota pretty accurately, having been polling on a regular basis in the state since before 2002. So automatically, I tend to give it a significant amount of weight.
I agree with both Wyland and Powers:
1) The quality of POS in the past gives this immediate credibility just on the surface.
2) The answers to MW’s questions is likely to enhance its credibility. I am especially interested in the answer to if the respondents were adults, registered voters, or likely voters.