Q-Poll: Storm Warning But No Unexpected Turbulence Yet.

Today’s Quinnipiac survey of Connecticut voters revealed few surprises.  No one would have expected that voters would like Governor Dannel P. Malloy’s solutions to the budget problems he did not create but promised last fall to fix.  The longer term optimism the poll found suggests they think conditions will improve despite the noxious solutions state government will impose.

Voters aren’t delighted with tax increased, but they are not in a state of revolt.  The challenge for Malloy is that he’s set the bar very high for extracting $1 billion a year for the next 2 years from state employee unions. If he fails to win those concessions, Malloy will have to boost the tax increases he’s seeking because this is not a legislature with a taste for cutting the budget.  Public notions of shared sacrifice are focused on the labor negotiations to which Malloy has directed so much attention.  It will not be hard to correlate a dollar-for-dollar tradeoff in concessions not gotten and additional tax burdens placed on the public.  That’s when attitudes will harden.