August Questionaire Results

SURVEY RESULTS HOLD SOME SURPRISES!
I'd like to thank everyone who took the time to fill out and mail in their survey from the June issue of the Northshore Conifer; some of you even took the time to write extended answers. The survey results will be one of the tools we use when developing the questions for the candidate forums this fall. While the total number of surveys turned in was small, I thought I'd take this opportunity to share some of the results with you this month.
The top three issues for St. Tammany and Tangipahoa residents for the next Governor were Coastal Restoration, Health Care Reform, and Ethics Reform. Transportation and Economic Development rounded out the top five priorities. There was very little support for maintaining all the current four year colleges, making LSU a world class research university, or for funding universal pre-K.
Respondents overwhelmingly voted that the chief task for the Lt. Governor should be to focus on Tourism. The results were about evenly split between Recreation and Culture. Readers thought the Secretary of State should put more energy into increasing voter turn-out. Again, decreasing the number of elections and, much to my surprise and delight, working on instant run-off voting, were tied for the number two priority.
Support for requiring insurance companies to reduce people's homeowner insurance provided they have purchased flood insurance topped the list of priorities for the Insurance Commissioner. Running a strong second was increasing the number of insurance companies writing policies in Louisiana followed by lowering premiums for Citizens.
Results for the Agriculture Commissioner were very evenly spread out among the four issues: outlaw cockfighting, support for the Forestry industry in St. Tammany and Tangipahoa, continued support for other agricultural uses for land in St. Tammany and Tangipahoa, and to focus on integrity and ethics.
Most people think that the Treasurer should continue to pay down debt followed closely by continuing efforts to improve the state's bond rating. When it comes to the BESE Board, hands-down, most people want to see the state move towards merit pay raises for teachers. The second priority for our readers was to require school districts to allocate increased resources for schools that are under-performing when compared to other schools in their district. While there was strong support for this position, one person took the time to write an extended response stating that under-performing schools should have to account for every penny they spend and bring back prayer and discipline!
The results for the State Senators and Representatives mirrored those for the Governor making Coastal Restoration and Ethics Reform the top two priorities. There was mild support for paying down the debt in the public retirement funds, but there was no widespread consensus either for or against a limited constitutional convention, election law reform, reducing taxes, increasing the Rainy Day Fund, or reducing four year colleges and increasing junior colleges. And bipartisan cooperation doesn't seem to be high on very many people's radar screens.
The League of Women Voters has advocated reducing the homestead exemption for many years. It only makes sense that local governments should generate the revenue that is needed to provide for local services. And apparently we're making some progress in this area since working to decrease the homestead exemption tied with leaving the homestead exemption alone for the top priorities for the Assessor. There was very little support expressed for the Assessor to focus on increasing the homestead exemption. We're probably not there yet, but it's nice to know that people are beginning to question whether it's better to send money to Baton Rouge and then wait for it to be sent back to the parishes or if more of the money should be raised and spent locally.
Again, the results for the Clerk of Court were evenly divided between decreasing the number of elections and increasing voter turnout. It appears that there's still more work to do before the voters get behind the idea of reducing the number of hours the polls are open. When it comes to the Sheriff, increasing patrols and investigations in known drug hot-spots only narrowly edged out enforcing traffic laws.
When it comes to the Parish President and the Parish Council, there is broad support for Ethics Reforms that includes full disclosure of involvement in real estate transactions and other economic development ventures. Running a very strong second as an issue for the Parish President was support for the adoption of a Master Plan to guide development. While support was very strong for financial disclosures for the parish council, there was some support for changing the terms of the Zoning Commission members to not coincide with the council members. In fact, one person felt that Zoning Commission members should be limited to a single four year term!
I'm sure we'll see many more scientific polls in the coming months, but it was very interesting to see what topics mattered to the people who mailed in the surveys. Perhaps we'll find a way to provide for an on-line survey in the future that will make it easier for the League of Women Voters of St. Tammany to obtain more public input. In the meantime, please feel free to contact me at lwvsttammany@hotmail.com or give me a call at (985) 875-9388 and let me know what's important to you. Please continue to visit our web site for more information at http://www.lwvst.info.

Comments, suggestions, questions? Contact our webmaster. Last revised: June 20, 2008 09:38 PDT.