U.S. Water News Online
WASHINGTON -- Midwest voters of both parties are so concerned about protecting clean air and water and conserving the lands that help preserve water quality that they would support additional taxes to pay for the preservation of these core 3quality of life2 issues. Additionally, voters will strongly consider a candidate1s stance on environmental protection in deciding whom to support in November1s elections, according to a bipartisan poll released by the Trust for Public Land and The Nature Conservancy, two national land and water conservation organizations.
The national poll revealed that the support for conservation shown by Midwest voters, matches the strong support for issues by voters across the country.
The poll, completed a week prior to Earth Day, shows that 65 percent of American voters surveyed said they were willing to support small increases in taxes to pay for programs to protect water quality, wildlife habitat and neighborhood parks.
Asked if a candidate1s positions on protecting water quality, local parks, and wildlife areas are important factors in deciding whom to vote for in November, 79 percent of the voters polled across the country said "yes."
In the 17 states likely to be the most contested electoral states in November, 77 percent said conservation issues will be "very" or "somewhat" important in making their choices. The poll also found particularly strong support for conservation among Latino voters, with 77 percent willing to support new conservation funding measures.
"These results show that voters are willing to make a personal investment to protect local lands and waterways and ensure clean air and water," said Will Rogers, president of the Trust for Public Land. "For a decade, we have worked in communities across the nation on ballot measures to create new public funding sources for open space, and these funds &endash; local taxes and bonds &endash; are often approved by large majorities. That holds true for areas that are heavily Democratic or heavily Republican, and it is true for rural communities, urban centers, and the suburbs. Protecting clean air and water and conserving the land that contributes to their protection is important to voters."
"It's clear from this national survey that voters are deeply concerned about clean air and water, and people put a high priority on protecting them," said Susan Harris, state director of The Nature Conservancy in Missouri. "If it's true people vote with their feet, then this survey suggests a lot of folks are wearing hiking boots and deeply value the preservation of natural areas in their communities.2
The bipartisan national poll of 1,500 likely voters was conducted by Republican research firm Public Opinion Strategies and Democrat research firm Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin & Associates.
The "small increase" in taxes that voters say they support would translate into large increases for state and local conservation programs. A total of 56 percent of voters nationwide say they would pay $50 per year more, including 50 percent of Republican voters.
A major reason for the willingness of voters across the country to spend more is to protect water quality, the poll found. Large majorities in the national poll said it is 3very important2 to buy land to protect drinking water quality (84 percent); improve water quality in lakes and streams (75 percent); protect lakes and rivers (72 percent), and watersheds (66 percent).
Nationally, nearly eight-in-ten voters (79 percent) say conservation-related issues are either a primary factor or one of the top issues they will consider in their November voting decisions. More than 40 percent said they have "voted for candidates because of their support for the environment." Those figures held true for key voter groups such as Democrats (50 percent), Republicans (36 percent), Latinos (47 percent), moderates (41 percent) and independents (39 percent).
Much of the concern about land and water conservation has been fueled by the rapid growth and development experienced during the economic boom of the 1990s, the poll found. For example, in 1999, 35 percent of voters nationwide said their local community was growing too quickly, while 25 percent said it was growing too slowly. But this nationwide poll showed 39 percent of respondents said growth was too fast, while the number who think growth was "too slow" had dropped by half to only 12 percent. In addition, voters today are more than four times as likely to say their community has "too little" protected space rather than "too much" &endash; by a margin of 36 percent to nine percent.
The telephone poll was conducted from April 3 to April 12 with a total of 1,500 interviews in the 48 continental states. The results focused on three subsets of voters &endash; an 800-voter national sample; a sample of 259 Latino voters; and 570 voters in 10 western states, including Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Results of the national sample had a 3.5 percent margin of error, while the western sample had a 4.2 percent error margin.
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