Poll Shows Residents Want Budget Surplus Spent On Education, Medicaid

A new poll says the top way Wisconsin residents want the state budget surplus to be used is for education. How that meshes with Governor Walker’s plans will become known over the next few days.

A poll done by the UW-Milwaukee asked more than 600 people how they would prefer the state budget surplus to be allocated. 40 percent said education is their top priority; 33 percent said Medicaid; 16 percent income tax cuts and 10 percent said, ‘add to the state transportation fund.’ Survey director Joseph Cera says the numbers were pretty stable across various groups….except for the self-described ‘very conservative’: “Income tax cuts are by and far their top priority, but if you look at the rest of the ideological spectrum, I guess you’d say, everyone else still prefers education and Medicaid.”

The poll also shows 51 percent of Wisconsin residents oppose tying increased funding to how well school districts perform. In Milwaukee yesterday Governor Walker said he does plan an incentive system.

“And I’m going to put money in this budget to target schools that are failing, but the idea is they only get to grab that money if they can show us what they’re going to do to fundamentally change what they’ve been doing that’s been failing thus far.”

Walker plans to talk about his transportation budget plans at news conferences today.