AUSTIN, Texas – The latest poll from the University of Texas/Texas Policy Project finds that Texans had negative views of the Legislature and its responsiveness to the needs of Texans. Fewer than 1 in 5 Texans said they were “very” or “extremely” confident that the Legislature had increased the reliability of the electric grid or water supply, improved the safety of Texas public schools, or improved the along Texas-Mexico. border
When asked to describe their views of the Legislature, nearly half of Texans surveyed (49 percent) said Texas state government “largely ignores the needs of Texas residents,” a up nearly 20 points since the question was first asked in 2012. More than a third (36 percent) said state government primarily takes care of the needs of Texans, down from 54 percent of in October 2012.
The poll polled 1,200 registered voters in Texas between June 2-12 and has a margin of error of +/- 2.83 percentage points.
“While supporters applauded legislative action on some niche issues, Texans remain highly skeptical of political leadership’s efforts on some of the toughest issues facing the state,” said James Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at UT Austin and founding co-director. of the survey. “While concerns about network and school security are well established, the overall results of this survey show a broader skepticism about state policy and institutions.”
The poll, conducted at the end of the regular legislative session, also found that 50 percent of Texans said the impeachment and trial of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was justified. Seventeen percent said it was not warranted, and a third had no opinion.
Republicans as a group are almost evenly split on impeachment: 31% said it was warranted, 30% thought it was not, and a plurality, 39%, had no opinion or did not know. Among self-identified conservatives, the shares were similar: 32% thought the impeachment was warranted, 31% not warranted, and 37% expressed no opinion.
Ratings of state leaders’ attempts to lower property taxes received the lowest overall approval rating among the 16 issue areas voters were asked to rate in the poll, tied to mental health. Only 25% of respondents approved of how the Legislature handled property taxes (7% strongly approved), while 45% disapproved (25% strongly disapproved).
42% said they expect their property taxes to increase, while only 23% expect them to decrease; 21% expect it to remain the same, while the remaining 14% had no opinion. The pessimism was bipartisan: 48 percent of Democrats and 41 percent of Republicans expected property tax bills to rise, while only 21 percent and 22 percent, respectively, expected them to fall.
“Legislative candidates and leaders across the state promised a property tax cut during the 2022 campaigns and before the legislative session before setting aside a large portion of the budget surplus to fund that effort,” he said Joshua Blank, director of research for Texas Politics at UT Austin. project “There is no question that the public failure to pass a significant property tax cut during the regular session has negatively influenced voter perceptions of these efforts.”
Other findings include:
Forty-four percent of voters said they disapprove of how state leaders and the Legislature have handled grid reliability, while only 28% approved; 20% offered neutral ratings and 8% had no opinion. A majority (76%) expressed support for a policy that would require at least one armed guard on every public school campus during school hours (including 91% of Republicans and a majority, 59% of the Democrats). Only 18 percent said they were “extremely” (6 percent) or “very sure” (12 percent) that legislative efforts had increased the safety of Texas public schools, compared with 48 percent who said either “they weren’t much” (19%) or “not confident” (29%). Paxton’s job approval ratings fell from 39% approval / 35% disapprove (net +4) in April to 30% approval / 41% disapprove (net -11) in June . Here are Paxton’s worst overall job approval ratings in polls going back to June 2021. Greg Abbott’s job approval ratings remained positive among registered voters: 47% approve while a 42% disapprove, and it remained very strong among Republicans, 81% of whom approve of her job. performance
Full survey results and methodological information, including questionnaire results, crosstabs and downloadable results graphs, are available at Texas Politics Project website.
