Elon poll shows support for sales tax hike

A new Elon University Poll shows that a significant majority of North Carolinians support raising revenue to close the state's $3 billion budget gap.

More than 6 in 10 North Carolinians support an increase in the sales tax by 1 cent per dollar spent, according to the poll.  And more than half – 56 percent – said they would oppose the elimination of state jobs to address the gap.

The poll, conducted Nov. 15-18, 2010, surveyed 520 North Carolina residents and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points. The sample is of the population in general, with numbers that include both landlines and cellular phones.

Respondents were asked a series of questions about the main areas of the state budget to gauge whether the state was allocating too much, the right amount, or too little on funding across these state service areas.

A majority of those who responded believed that too little money from the budget is directed toward local community colleges in North Carolina. Forty-three percent believe too little is spent on K-12 education, and 33 percent said too little is spent on higher education. Respondents were satisfied with levels of spending for justice and public safety, and for transportation.

For complete poll results go here and for Elon's methodology, go here.