According to a poll conducted by Texas 2036, at least 92 percent of Texas voters said they were concerned about the future of the state, with 58 percent also stating they felt extremely concerned about it.
The Texas 2036 is a nonprofit organization that aims to build long-term, data-driven strategies to secure Texas’ prosperity. They recently commissioned a poll to longtime GOP pollster Mike Baselice’s firm, and who has worked with both Trump and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick in the past.
The poll results, which were released on Tuesday, paint a grim picture of what Texans feel right now and their hopes for the future. It had 1,001 participants and was made 43% by cell phone, 23% by landline, and 34% through the web. It has a margin of error of +/- 3.1%.
The report shows that for the first time in the six years the question has been asked, more Texas voters (26%) said they feel financially worse off than they did the year before. Only 20 percent of the people being polled said they believe they are better off.
52 percent of voters said they believe that Texas is worse off than it was this time last year, a truly concerning fact considering last year the pandemic was at a considerable height and vaccines were not yet released. Only 13 percent said they thought the state was headed in a better direction.
The overwhelming majority of Texas voters agree with using federal COVID-19 relief money to fund large-scale projects and promote the state’s economy. This is something that state lawmakers can actually do in the upcoming third special session of the legislature.
The poll shows that 88 percent of people think the money should be spent on water infrastructure, supporting projects that will get Texans clean drinking water and access to it during droughts. 83 percent think some of the money should be used to upgrade the state’s electrical grid.
Furthermore, 81 percent said they would like to see an improvement on broadband and emergency communications infrastructure, including getting internet access to people in rural areas. 79 percent believe the state should invest in preventing floods and 68 percent think the government should create new state parks.
Finally, a little bit over half of Texas voters (58%) agrees that some money should go to the state’s unemployment trust fund in order to prevent the need to increase taxes on employers in the future.
