A new poll by Rasmussen Reports shows Gov. Chris Christie may have been dead on in his assessment of taxpayer attitudes toward the public sector.
The nationwide poll showed that only 19 percent of the taxpayers surveyed would be willing to pay higher taxes to avoid public sector layoffs. A whopping 69 percent said they wouldn not be willing to pay more while 11 percent were undecided.
Entitlement programs took a similar beating with 22 percent saying they would pay more to avoid cuts to programs and 63 percent saying they would not.
Christie’s ongoing battle with the teacher’s union also may pay off politically as 34 percent of respondents said they would pay more in taxes to fund education, while 54 percent said they are not.
The poll surveyed 1,000 adults.
Christie has battled with several public employee unions over pay and benefits since taking office in January. In April, the governor asked teachers to take one year pay freeze and punctuated the request by imploring voters in towns where teachers refused the freeze to vote down the school budgets. More than half of all budgets were shot down.
