(C) Daily Montanan This story was originally published by Daily Montanan and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . GOP supermajority appears to make a majority of Montanans mad – Daily Montanan [1] ['Darrell Ehrlick', 'More From Author', '- June'] Date: 2023-06-20 Montanans don’t seem to like much the 2023 Montana Legislature did, according to a new poll released Tuesday. When Middle Fork Strategies conducted a poll similar to the one it did in February, the sentiment changed. Considerably. What was characterized by an optimism that the legislature was poised to tackle issues such as housing and public education left many disappointed. In fact, not one category of the poll saw favorable results among topics like housing, public education, healthcare, or inflation. The poll by the progressive-leaning organization was conducted earlier in June, surveying Democrats, Republicans and Independents, and it has a margin of error of +/- 4%. Even the state budget, which passed with a historic surplus some of which went to tax relief, paying off state debt and some investment in beleaguered agencies like the Department of Corrections, got a cool reception with just 49% of respondents saying it was handled well. Most of the respondents identified affordable housing, public education and healthcare as areas of concerns, and few saw much good that came out of the session. Even though many states, including the State of Montana, have moved to place more restrictions on abortion and birth control, Montana’s law remains open to both, and support for the freedom to access it remained characteristically high, with both a majority of Democrats and Republicans supporting some type of choice. Fifty-six percent of those surveyed said they favored keeping it legal or legal under most circumstances. More than half, 51%, said that they believed the economic condition for their community or neighbors has worsened while only 6% said it got better. When questioned about their own personal situation, 39% said it had gotten worse, while 42% said it stayed the same. Nearly two-thirds of the respondents said they had watched the news or paid attention to the Montana Legislature, and more than half said they were dissatisfied with how the lawmakers had handled housing, property taxes and public education, with 74% saying lawmakers hadn’t adequately addressed housing, and 56% saying they hadn’t fixed property taxes. Fifty-four percent of those polled also said they were concerned about how the legislature addressed education. And even more, 66%, said they did not favor sending public school funds to private or religious schools. “Looking at what came out of the legislative session, Montanans aren’t seeing real results that will positively affect their lives,” said Brandon DeMars, executive director of Middle Fork. “Working families in Montana are rightfully asking what was accomplished, and they are deeply concerned about new laws attempting to restrict private healthcare decisions and take funding from community schools.” [END] --- [1] Url: https://dailymontanan.com/2023/06/20/gop-supermajority-appears-to-make-a-majority-of-montanans-mad/ Published and (C) by Daily Montanan Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/montanan/