Poll finds budget unfamiliarity, discontent

AUGUSTA – A new sounding of sentiment in Maine on how state government manages its money finds plenty of skepticism and dissatisfaction, but also lots of inattention.

Results of the Market Decisions survey show most Mainers do not feel well-informed about the most recent state budget process, the Portland-based firm reported Wednesday.

While 29 percent of respondents said they are very or somewhat familiar with the process, 71 percent said they had little or no familiarity with it.

“Even though taxes and spending are hot-button issues, Mainers are surprisingly uninformed about this year’s budget process,” Brian Robertson, research director of Market Decisions, said in a statement.

Nonetheless, Mainers gave low grades to budget work by the governor and Legislature, with almost two-thirds of citizens giving lawmakers and the chief executive a grade of C, D or F, according to the survey results.

“These are general perceptions,” Robertson said in an interview.

Market Decisions noted that respondents rated the governor and Legislature before the question on awareness of the budget increase.

The survey reported that about half of the respondents believe state government is spending money on less important projects, programs and services, while only a quarter thought that government is spending money on more important items.

About nine in 10 Mainers expressed support for efforts to increase government efficiency.

“One thing most Mainers can agree on is the need [to] make Maine government more efficient and effective,” Market Decisions President Curtis Mildner said in the firm’s prepared statement. “Most Mainers want government programs and services – but they also want government to do its job better.”

The firm said questions were posed to randomly selected adults in Maine as part of Market Decisions’ quarterly Maine Survey. The firm said questions were fielded at Market Decisions’ expense with no other organization providing support.

A total of 401 Maine residents were interviewed by telephone from July 16 to Aug. 2, the firm said, providing a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 5 percent.

In June, Maine lawmakers enacted a $6.3 billion biennial budget package, setting spending priorities for the next two years and mandating sweeping changes in how school administrative systems have been organized for decades.

Enactment came five months after Gov. John Baldacci unveiled a $6.4 billion spending package that contained no broad-based tax increases and was designed to increase the state’s share of basic local education funding to 55 percent by state fiscal year 2009.