Fair survey shows strong opinions

09/07/2005

Conrad Defiebre,
Star Tribune
September 7, 2005

Thousands of State Fairgoers who filled out public policy questionnaires sponsored by the Minnesota House and Senate shared some strong opinions with legislators:

• A special session for stadium proposals? No way (69.3 percent opposed).

• A local sales tax increase without voter approval? Not on your life (81.1 percent opposed).

But the 13,642 respondents to the separate House and Senate surveys—hardly a representative sample of Minnesota voters, or even of the 1.6 million attendees at the fair, which ended Monday—weren’t down on every idea floating around the State Capitol.

Solid majorities favored increasing the state gasoline tax to fund roads and bridges (53.6 percent) and dedicating part of the sales tax to clean up polluted waters (73.8 percent). Even the state’s new 75-cents-a-pack cigarette charge got strong support (70.1 percent); most consider it a tax (78.5 percent) rather than a fee as it has been styled by Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

Nonpartisan House and Senate officials conduct such surveys at the fair every year, and legislators often pay them more than passing interest, even though they are not scientifically designed to reflect opinion in Minnesota as a whole.

For example, 78.1 percent of the 4,820 Senate respondents were from the Twin Cities and suburbs, a significant overrepresentation of the metro area, where the fair is held. In addition, DFL respondents to the Senate survey outnumbered Republicans by more than two to one. The House survey of 8,822 people didn’t include such demographic background data.

The resounding results on a stadium special session and local sales taxes came from the House poll. More mixed responses came to differently worded questions on those topics in the Senate poll.

On a special session, 55.6 percent of Senate respondents turned thumbs down after being told it could consider transportation needs, hospital siting, pension reform and other issues along with stadiums.

The Senate poll also offered a detailed description of the Hennepin County-Twins stadium plan, which hinges on a 0.15-percentage-point sales tax increase in the county without a public referendum. Only 23.2 percent favored that, with 67.2 percent calling for a vote or opposing any tax money for a Twins stadium.

Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson, DFL-Willmar, who joined House Speaker Steve Sviggum, R-Kenyon, last month in calling for a fall special session, backed off from that on Tuesday. The survey findings, plus the current focus of public concern on the hurricane disaster in Louisiana and Mississippi, militate against summoning legislators back to the Capitol anytime soon, he said.

“All of our juices are being used up for hurricane response,” Johnson said. “That’s where people are centering their attention, and properly so.”

Sviggum couldn’t be reached for comment Tuesday. Pawlenty has said he’d be willing to call a limited special session if the legislative caucuses agree on issues beforehand.

Fair attendance

Attendance at the fair was just a fraction of a percentage point higher than in 2004.

Officials said 1,632,876 people attended the fair.

In 2004, attendance was 1,631,940. The fair had drawn more than 1.7 million people in the previous three years.