This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Politics & Government

Poll: Pennsylvanians Divided Over Corbett's First 100 Days

Natural gas tax, higher education cuts will be key issues.

On his 100th day in office last week, Gov. Tom Corbett had Pennsylvanians divided over his budget cuts and the state Legislature divided over proposed cuts to education and a natural gas severance tax. 

A Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday highlights two of the major issues facing the governor with two months remaining before the state’s constitutionally mandated budget deadline. 

According to the poll, 39 percent of Pennsylvanians approve of how Corbett is handling his job, while 37 percent disapprove of his performance. His approval number remains unchanged from a previous Quinnipiac poll in February, but the disapproval rating jumped from 11 percent to its current level in the past two months. 

Find out what's happening in Hellertown-Lower Sauconwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Of course, the February poll was taken before Corbett’s March 8 budget address in which he unveiled a proposed budget with a 3 percent overall spending cut and a 50 percent cut to state funding for higher education. 

Now, 50 percent of voters in the state say the proposed budget cuts are unfair, while 39 percent disagree. Even so, 55 percent of voters say the budget can be balanced with no new taxes. 

Find out what's happening in Hellertown-Lower Sauconwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The poll surveyed 1,366 registered voters in the state from April 19-25 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points. 

Quinnipiac pollster Peter Brown said the message from Pennsylvania voters might be that they don’t know what they really want but still hope Corbett and the Legislature can give it to them. 

“People want spending cuts over tax increases, but when you confront them with the cuts they are less supportive,” said Brown. 

It all adds up to a difficult tight-rope walk for the new governor during the next two months. However, even with the rising disapproval rate, Corbett is doing better than other first-term Republican governors in Florida and Ohio, said Brown. 

“Perhaps it’s because Pennsylvania’s budget hole is not as big as some other states on a per capita basis, but his numbers are actually better,” Brown said. 

New Republican governors John Kasich in Ohio and Rick Scott in Florida have disapproval ratings in the mid-50s, said Brown. 

Christopher Borick, a pollster and professor of political science at Muhlenberg College, said Corbett has avoided seeming abrasive or adversarial during his first months in office, which has helped him with voters. However, the fiscal realities of the state’s $4-billion budget deficit caused the honeymoon--if there ever was one--to come to a quick end. 

“It was fairly predictable that he wasn’t going to have a pain-free start to his administration,” Borick said. “He’s been thrown right into the fire, and he’s taken on some wounds early in his administration, but none of them are fatal.” 

Two issues in particular have generated a strong reaction from the state’s voters as the governor tries to close the $4 billion budget deficit. 

Corbett has proposed a cut of about $580 million in state spending on higher education and has steadfastly held to his promise to veto any new taxes--including a severance tax on the natural gas companies. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are preparing to test his resolve on those issues. 

Seeking to restore some of Corbett’s proposed budget cuts, House Democrats led by state Rep. Curtis Thomas, D-Philadelphia, unveiled an alternative budget Wednesday morning that allocates funding differently but maintains the governor’s final spending figure of $27.3 billion and includes no tax increases. 

In particular, the Democrats’ plan includes restoring $263 million of Corbett’s proposed $580 million cut to higher education.

“I think there are going to be changes, the question is how we do it,” Thomas said. “At the end of the day, education has to be on the table.” 

House Republicans also have expressed a desire to restore at least a portion of Corbett’s higher education cuts, though they have promised not to exceed the proposed final spending figure of $27.3 billion. 

State Rep. Bill Adolph, R-Delaware, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, said the education cuts would be revisited during the budget negotiations. 

"There should be no new taxes involved in the budget, but the governor has said he realizes there is going to be some adjustments made,” said Adolph. “But it will be just adjustments, not added revenues.” 

Adolph declined to specify how much he would be willing to restore to higher education. 

Last week, Senate Democrats offered a different alternative budget plan focused on increasing revenues through several new taxes, including a tax on Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling. 

State Senate President Joe Scarnati, D-Jefferson, said April 26 that he would be proposing a “local impact fee” on natural gas drillers. He said the plan--to be unveiled Thursday--is not in the form of a bill, but is only a proposal for now. 

In the past, Republicans have said they would not support a severance tax to balance the budget or to feed the general fund. 

Wednesday’s Quinnipiac poll found that 69 percent of Pennsylvanians support a tax on Marcellus Shale, despite the fact that only 36 percent said they favor new taxes to balance the budget, and 55 percent say they believe the state budget can be balanced without new taxes. 

State Rep. Greg Vitali, D-Delaware, the lead sponsor on a severance tax bill awaiting action in the state House, said the poll was consistent with others from recent months. 

“I think there is going to be a price to pay with the voters if we don’t pass a tax,” said Vitali. 

Kathryn Klaber, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, an industry group, said it is difficult to capture the complexities of the natural gas industry and its impact on Pennsylvania’s economy from a single poll question. 

She reiterated the coalition’s position that a severance tax would be only one part of a regulatory and business environment that helps the gas industry to develop in the state.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?