Poll: County elected officials bullish on economy, split on immigration
Balancing county budgets was easier in 2006 than in the past few years, and county elected officials were more upbeat about the economy, according to the 2006 National County Elected Officials Poll, conducted by NACo and the National Center for the Study of Counties (NCSC). However, a majority of those interviewed - 60 percent - cited revenue and unfunded mandates as the biggest problems facing their counties. The results were presented at NACo’s annual conference.
"This year’s commissioner’s opinion poll provided interesting insight into the feelings of county elected officials," said Jacqueline Byers, NACo’s director of research. "In comparison to the general public, county officials are more optimistic about government and the economy. However, they are just as divided as the general public in assessing the impact that immigration has had in their county and in the country at large."
The poll, NACo’s third since 2004, was conducted with the University of Georgia-based NCSC. Administered between June 13 and July 10, the 2006 poll surveyed 500 randomly selected county elected officials, who were interviewed by phone.
Local economic conditions
Fifty-two percent of county elected officials responded that economic conditions in their counties are improving, while 26 percent said they were getting worse.
This generally rosy outlook was also reflected in officials’ rating of the degree of difficulty in approving their most recent county budgets. In 2006, 37 percent of county elected officials said that passing their budget was more difficult than in prior years - a decline of 19 points from 2004, when 56 percent said budgeting was more challenging than in previous years.
County elected officials also reported feeling less fiscal stress in 2006 than in previous years. This year, 28 percent said they had to reduce the size of government in response to fiscal constraints. In the 2004 poll, 39 percent said their county had to shrink the size of government to address fiscal concerns. Additionally, counties were less likely to reduce or eliminate county services in 2006 than in 2004.
County elected officials were also asked to rate the fiscal health of their counties on a scale of 1 to 10. The mean rating of 6.86 in 2006 was only slightly higher than 2005’s rating of 6.49.
The U.S. economy
Fifty-two percent of county elected officials rated the nation’s economy as "excellent" (9 percent) or "good" (43 percent), compared to only 36 percent of Americans rating it excellent or good (in a separate, June 2006 poll by Time magazine and Schulman, Roca & Bucuvalas, Inc. [SRBI]).
In another divergence, county elected officials were more optimistic about the direction the country is headed than the general public. While 66 percent of Americans said the nation is "on the wrong track," only 50 percent of county officials shared that opinion.
Yet, only 37 percent of county elected officials responded that the country is "heading in the right direction." There was a strong correlation between political affiliation and respondents’ assessment of the country’s direction: 59 percent of Republicans said the country’s on the right track, compared to 17 percent of Democrats. Seventy-one percent of Democrats said the country is on the wrong track, versus only 26 percent of Republicans.
Independents, meanwhile, lean more toward the Democratic assessment: 59 percent see the nation on the wrong track.
In 2004, county officials were evenly split on the direction of the nation; in 2005, they were more positive than negative.
Regarding views of Congress, political affiliation did not seem to matter - 3 percent of county officials - whether Democrat, Independent or Republican - felt that Congress is extremely unresponsive to the pressing needs of America’s counties. Yet, they had more a more positive view of their states’ congressional delegations; 18 percent found their own representatives in Congress responsive to counties’ needs.
Immigration
Immigration is one of today’s most hotly debated topics. However, among the poll’s other major findings, a larger percentage of county elected officials find immigration to be an "opportunity" rather than a "problem" - 46 percent versus 39 percentage points.
In a statistical dead heat, 44 percent of elected officials questioned responded that immigration helps the United States more than it hurts it, while 43 percent said it hurts more than it helps. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 points.
Funding the arts
A majority of county elected officials interviewed support government funding of the arts (65 percent), compared to 28 percent who oppose it. Fifty-five percent of county officials said their county regularly funds art programs or cultural venues.
Seventy-two percent of those polled said the arts greatly (17 percent) or somewhat (55 percent) contribute to their jurisdictions’ economic development. Twenty-two percent believe the arts contribute very little, and 4 percent believed the arts make no contribution.
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