An overwhelming majority of Texas voters prefer lawmakers balance the state’s next budget through spending cuts rather than tax increases, according to a new poll from Texans for Fiscal Responsibility (TFR).
Seventy-six percent of those responding to TFR’s poll indicated they were “more likely” to support a legislator who cut government spending. That figure includes 89 percent of Republican voters, 63 Democratic voters, and 74 percent of Independents.
Conversely, 74 percent of respondents suggested that they were “less likely” to support a lawmaker intent on raising taxes. This figure includes 85 percent of Republican voters, 63 Democratic voters, and 71 percent of Independents.
Definitive results like these, according to TFR President Michael Quinn Sullivan, are something that should not go unnoticed.
“A clear majority of Texans from every ethnicity, age-range and income-level are expecting the state’s budget to be balanced through cuts, and not tax hikes,” said Sullivan. “Texas lawmakers need to make do with the funds available, not reach deeper into the people’s pockets. For legislators taking the expedient route and looking for more revenues, it will both harm the economy and put them in direct opposition to the wishes of their constituents.”
-Jeremy KeeIntern, Center for Fiscal Policy