Poll finds most want to spend state surplus on college, health

Californians are in a spending mood with the state flush with cash, and they’re putting a priority on creating a universal health care system and making community colleges free, a new poll indicates.

They’re much less enthusiastic about two priorities of outgoing Gov. Jerry Brown — the troubled high-speed rail project and saving money for the day the economy turns bad, according to a poll released Wednesday night by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California.

The state is expecting an “extraordinary” budget surplus of $14.8 billion for the 2019-20 fiscal year, to go with $14.5 billion it has already put in rainy-day reserves, the legislative analyst’s office said in November.

Asked what California should do with the extra money, 57 percent of adult residents surveyed for the poll opted for increasing funding for education and health and human services. Paying down state debt and adding to reserves came in a distant second, at 21 percent.

Building reserves for an economic downturn was Brown’s overriding concern in recent budget negotiations with the Legislature. Earlier this year, he warned that “we’re nearing the longest economic recovery in modern history, and as Isaac Newton observed: What goes up must come down.” With money rolling in, he added, “this is a time to save for our future . ... Let’s not blow it now.”

Republicans surveyed for the poll largely agreed, with 44 percent preferring to pay off state debts and bank surplus cash. But not Democrats or independents, both of whom went for more money for education and health and human services by big margins.

Brown’s successor, Gov.elect Gavin Newsom, will submit his first budget shortly after he is sworn in Jan. 7. He indicated during the campaign that early education would be a priority, and the new poll shows that Californians are open to the idea: Forty-eight percent of those surveyed put a high or very high priority on early education funding.

Two other ideas that Newsom has pushed to varying degrees scored higher, however: paying for universal health care (60 percent of adults called that a high or very high priority) and free community college tuition (53 percent).

Newsom indicated support during the campaign for one method of universal health care, a single-payer system. But he also tried to dampen expectations, saying that putting a single-payer system in place would take years and that “it is not an act that would occur by the signature of the next governor.”

One project that Newsom has not emphasized is highspeed rail, which has gone well over its original budget and now has a 2033 completion date for its envisioned route between San Francisco and Los Angeles. The money for finishing the line isn’t in place, and Newsom has called the idea of running bullet trains to Los Angeles “a question of resources.”

The new poll indicates that Californians don’t think Newsom should strain too hard to find those resources. Just 25 percent of adults surveyed said using the state’s extra money on high-speed rail was a high or very high priority, versus 46 percent who called it a low or very low priority.

The Public Policy Institute of California’s pollsters surveyed 1,704 adult residents on cell phones and landlines, in English and Spanish, Nov. 11-20. The margin of error is 3.3 percentage points.

Trapper Byrne is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tbyrne@sfchronicle.com