Eighty-one percent of Americans are prepared to pay 1% more in taxes to rebuild America’s infrastructure, according to a poll released Jan. 8 by Building America’s Future, a bipartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to encouraging infrastructure investment.
Conducted by Luntz, Maslansky Strategic Research, the poll shows widespread and bipartisan support for smart infrastructure investment with accountability measures. Key findings included:
• A near unanimous 94% of Americans are concerned about our nation’s infrastructure;
• Accountability is their single highest priority (61%) in rebuilding America’s infrastructure. Regarding infrastructure spending, Americans care most that projects are on time and on budget (31%) and that they can see exactly where the money is being spent (24%); and
• Americans understand that infrastructure isn’t just roads and highways. Indeed, energy facilities are their highest priority. Roads and highways score second. Clean water is third.
“Americans don’t want their children educated in portable classrooms, and they don’t want to waste millions of gallons of water from leaky, old pipes,” said California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, one of the co-chairs of Building America’s Future, along with Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “They want the federal government to smartly invest in our nation’s infrastructure,” said Schwarzenegger. “Now is the perfect time to put money into public-works projects because it will help create jobs while pumping up our economy. It's like hitting two homeruns with one swing. This poll confirms that infrastructure is a priority to all Americans and that they are willing to invest in their own quality of life.”
“This poll confirms what many of us believe: The American public understands the importance of investing in a broad range of infrastructure, from the energy grid to roads and transit to clean water. And they understand why infrastructure is so important to them in their daily lives,” said Rendell. “But the public is demanding strong accountability, transparency and oversight of any new investments in infrastructure. They want us to set national priorities in infrastructure investment that improve people’s lives, their communities and our economy. They would rather see us take the time to pick the right investments, rather than rush ahead with the same old projects.”
"The numbers don't lie: A majority of Americans want to invest in building up our nation's infrastructure, but they want to know that their money is being spent wisely,” said Bloomberg. “They want the government to clean up its act and take responsibility for both success and failure. Any investment made must have benchmarks attached so that we can evaluate what is getting done and what opportunities are being squandered.”
“There simply isn't another issue with such widespread support across partisan lines and geographic boundaries,” said Frank Luntz of Luntz, Maslansky Strategic Research. “The public already sees the need and is ready to lend a hand financially to make sure it gets done, but they want it done correctly. This is a major test for government. Accountability is absolutely essential."
Paid for by Building America’s Future, the national survey polled 800 Americans age 18 and older (3.5% margin of error) on Dec. 22, 2008. Conducted online with a nationally representative sample of voters, the results were stratified by gender and region applying 2008 census data to ensure an accurate representation of all adult Americans. To view a summary and memo from Frank Luntz, visit: http://investininfrastructure.org/newsroom/press.html.
