Nearly six in 10 residents polled in a statewide survey feel Idaho is headed in the right direction, with education and the economy ranked as the top two concerns heading into 2018.
The Boise State University School of Public Service conducted a statewide survey of 1,000 adults the first week of December.
It shows residents are concerned about the quality of public education, while most are satisfied with current approaches to budget and revenue issues.
Sixty-three percent of those surveyed rated statewide K-12 education as fair or poor, a third rated it good or excellent. Forty-eight percent of respondents rated the quality of K-12 public schools in their area as fair or poor, while 45 percent said it was good or excellent.
Nearly one-half of respondents support lowering state taxes, even knowing tax cuts often result in fewer resources to pay for state government services.
When given a choice between eliminating the sales tax on food or reducing the state income tax, respondents overwhelmingly favored dropping the food tax.
Asked which issues the Idaho Legislature should address, those surveyed ranked education first, followed by healthcare, jobs, natural resources and taxes.
Regarding health care, 77 percent believe Idaho’s elected officials need to create an Idaho solution for affordable health care insurance plans.
As far as taxes go, respondents are evenly split between those who would rather pay higher taxes and have a state government that provides more services, and those who like lower taxes and fewer government services.
Of 13 issues mentioned in the survey the bottom five in order were federal regulations, immigration, gun laws, crime and affordable housing.
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