Survey Says: Nearly 2/3 of Californians Favor Gov. Brown's Proposed Phase-Out of Redevelopment Agencies & Enterprise Zones To Provide Money For Schools

The survey, released Jan. 26, found that 66% of adults, 63% of likely voters, favor Gov. Brown’s proposal to phase out funding for local redevelopment agencies and eliminate enterprise zones (to redirect tax revenue to local governments for schools and other services).

Most adults (55%) disapprove of the new legislature (largely composed of incumbents)...and likely voters are more likely to be negative: 68% disapprove. The state legislature fares even worse regarding the state budget and taxes: 65% of adults and 74 percent of likely voters disapprove.

The survey indicates most Californians consider the state budget a big problem (68% adults, 83% likely voters). Significant majorities of adults oppose spending cuts in K-12 education (75%), higher education (63%), and health and human services (60%) to help reduce the state budget deficit. 71% of Californians say they are willing to increase taxes to avoid cuts to K-12 education (71%). The support drops to 59% for higher education and 57% for health and human services. By comparison, only 17% were willing to pay higher taxes to maintain current funding for prisons and corrections.

Likely voters are less willing than Californians overall to pay higher taxes to maintain funding for K-12 education (62%), higher education (51%) and health and human services (46%)...and only 14 percent would pay higher taxes to spare prisons and corrections.

Regarding solutions for a $25 billion gap between state revenue and spending, the survey says 42% of Californians prefer a mix of spending cuts and tax increases, while 36% prefer mainly cuts, 9% favor mainly tax increases, 7% apoprove of borrowing money and running a deficit.

Sizable majorities (71% adults, 73% likely voters) favor the general concept of shifting tax dollars and fees to local governments to take on the responsibility of running certain programs. The concept is favored across party lines (73% Democrats, 72% Republicans, 68% independents) and demographic groups. Most residents are confident (14% very confident, 49% somewhat confident) that local governments would be able to operate programs currently run by the state, and so are likely voters (18% very confident, 51% somewhat confident). Adults in the San Francisco Bay Area (69%) are the most likely and Los Angeles residents (59%) the least likely to express at least some confidence that their local governments would be able to take on these new responsibilities.

Additional survey results: