Taxes top of mind for voters

Poll surveys mood of electorate in state as primary approaches

High taxes and the high cost of living in Connecticut will be foremost in voters minds when they head to the primary polls Tuesday, a new Sacred Heart University poll found.

“The top issues driving voters’ behavior heading into the race for governor was the high overall tax burden (32.1 percent) or high cost of living (21.9 percent) in Connecticut,” said Professor Lesley DeNardis, executive director of the Institute for Public Policy at Sacred Heart, of the poll results released Friday.

The statewide public policy poll was conducted from mid-July to early August and asked 53 questions of 1,003 state residents. The poll contains a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent. Results showed more than 90 percent of voters will keep a candidate’s leadership qualities, accomplishments, priorities and goals for the state in mind when voting.

“Comparatively, the candidate’s prior government experience was important to just 67.3 percent of residents,” DeNardis said.

The primaries have drawn many business leaders who lack government experience.

“(The poll) kind of contradicts the idea that voters now are universally in favor of having outsiders come in,” said Ronald Schurin, associate professor of political science at the University of Connecticut. “I would like to know how the Republicans and Democrats come down on that one.”

But Gayle Alberda, assistant professor of politics at Fairfield University, thought outsiders, like gubernatorial candidates Ned Lamont, a Democrat, and Republicans Steve Obsitnik, Bob Stefanowski and David Stemerman, could see an edge based on these poll results.

That would put the three town officials running for governor — Democrat Joe Ganim, mayor of Bridgeport, and Republicans Mark Boughton, mayor of Danbury, and Tim Herbst, first selectman of Trumbull — behind.

The poll does not suggest any one candidate is more likely to win Tuesday than another, Alberda and Schurin said.

The Connecticut-specific poll, conducted by GreatBlue Research Inc., done on behalf of the SHU Institute for Public Policy, found more than 60 percent of respondents said it was difficult to maintain a standard of living on their household income in Connecticut. Ninety-four percent of respondents ranked Connecticut’s high cost of living among their greatest concerns, followed closely by the state’s high tax burden at 91 percent.

On other topics, 73.4 percent of residents were worried about education inequality, and 67 percent fretted over migration out of Connecticut. A majority of respondents said Connecticut is not a draw for tourists or businesses.

What should Connecticut do about it? Ninety-two percent of respondents want to see Connecticut improve its highways, and three-quarters supported expanding public transportation. About half supported creating policies that make it easier to start a new business.

A strong focus on the cost of living, as shown in the poll, could lead voters to negatively perceive candidates who are wealthy, Alberda said.

“Right now is prime time for voters to make up their minds,” Alberda said. “If I was a campaign manager and I saw these results, I would say we are talking about these issues and these issues only.”