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Poll: Voters frown on Kasich, his budget

53 percent say his plan is unfair; 30 percent approve of job he’s doing.

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By William Hershey, Columbus Bureau Updated 10:40 PM Wednesday, March 23, 2011

The key findings in a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday show Republican Gov. John Kasich is getting off to a rocky start, with some Ohio voters who disapprove of his budget proposal and frown on the curbs to public employee collective bargaining he supports.

Here are snapshots of the results:

• Forty-six percent disapproved of Kasich’s handling of the job, while 30 percent approved.

• Fifty-three percent said Kasich’s proposed budget is unfair to them; 36 percent said it’s fair.

• Half those surveyed were asked about legislation that limited “collective bargaining” and 48 percent were opposed, compared to 41 percent in support.

• The other half were asked about a bill to limit “collective bargaining rights” and 54 percent were opposed, while 35 percent were in support.

“Although there is almost nothing in these numbers that Kasich can point to as evidence of his popularity or that of his proposals, he can take solace from the fact that he has almost four years to turn around public opinion,” Peter Brown, assistant director of Connecticut’s Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said.

In the poll, women were harder on Kasich, who took office in January, than men. Women disapproved of his performance, 48-25 percent, while men disapproved his performance, 44-37 percent.

By a 55-37 percent spread, they said Kasich should not have promised to fill a projected $8 billion budget deficit by only cutting spending and not raising taxes. By a 64-23 percent spread, they said he wouldn’t keep his no-tax pledge, even though his budget plan has no tax increases.

Still, when asked whether to balance the budget with cuts alone or by coupling them with tax increases, voters by a 65-27 percent spread backed not raising taxes at all.

Voters also disapproved, 46-39 percent, Kasich’s plan to sell five state prisons to private firms to save money.

The poll was taken March 15-21, with 1,384 registered voters surveyed by live interviewers over land lines and cellphones. The poll has a margin of error of plus of minus 2.6 percentage points.

An Ohio Poll released March 14 conducted by the University of Cincinnati’s Institute for Policy Research showed 40 percent of Ohioans approving of Kasich’s performance as governor, 47 percent disapproving and 13 percent neither approving nor disapproving.

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