By Arthur E. Foulkes
TERRE HAUTE — The people of Terre Haute oppose higher taxes to meet expected city budget cuts – but not when it comes to police and fire protection, according to a public opinion survey conducted by Indiana State University.
Only 15.6 percent of those surveyed favored raising taxes or fees to deal with an expected $2 million cut from next year’s city budget and a $5 million cut expected the following year, the survey showed. On the other hand, nearly 80 percent said they preferred higher taxes or fees over cuts in police and fire protection.
“When it comes to police and fire, they think that’s money well spent,” said Mayor Duke Bennett commenting on the survey results. “Most people would like to see us cut the budget [but] when you talk about cutting public safety … they sent a message that they really don’t want that cut,” he said.
The survey results are based on a random sample of around 600 registered Harrison Township voters, said Virgil Sheets, chairman of the combined psychology and sociology department at ISU. A sample of 600 from a population the size of Harrison Township provides a margin of error of around 4 percent, according to the American Research Group Inc.
The survey was designed to help city officials obtain public feedback in the face of expected budget cuts, Bennett said. The cuts will result from changes in Indiana’s property tax laws.
One surprise in the survey was that around 90 percent of respondents said they would be willing to bag their own leaves to help the city deal with expected budget cuts, Bennett said. The city has no current plans to stop the leave vacuuming service but “we wanted to get some feedback,” he said.
The leaf pickup program costs the city between $250,000 and $300,000 annually, Bennett said. Leaf pickup “may be something we do again next year and not do in 2010,” Bennett said. “It’s a little too early to tell,” he said.
If the city stopped the leaf vacuuming service, it would provide leaf bags and the Street Department or Republic Services would then pick up the bagged leaves, Bennett said. Vacuuming the leaves is “a great service, but we have to look at everything,” the mayor said.
Other results from the survey found that around 40 percent of those questioned favored cuts in plans to build more biking and walking trails when given the choice between cutting those plans or cutting plans to update park restrooms.
Meanwhile, more than 62 percent of those surveyed said they never use the city’s Web site and 83.1 percent said they never use the city bus system. And around 85 percent of respondents also said they would favor more combined city-county services.
About 800 Harrison Township registered voters were contacted for the survey, Sheets said. Of those, about 75 percent answered at least one question, he said.
The city has a contract with ISU, signed in 2006, to conduct six surveys for $16,000, said Darrel Zeck, public affairs director for the City of Terre Haute. This was the first survey under Bennett and the city still has one survey left in the contract, which it plans to use this spring, he said.
The full survey results are available at the city’s Web page at www.terrehaute.in.gov. Visitors to the Web site also may take the survey.
Arthur Foulkes can be reached at (812) 231-4232 or arthur.foulkes@tribstar.com.
