Overview

With the economy wreaking havoc on state budgets, the favorability ratings of state governments have declined from a year ago. Overall, 50% of the public now holds a favorable opinion of their state government, down from 59% in April 2008. The falloff in positive views has been greater in states with large and moderate budget shortfalls than in states with smaller budget gaps.

As positive ratings of state governments have declined, people’s ratings of their local governments have remained relatively stable. By nearly a two-to-one margin, Americans express a favorable opinion of their local governments (60% favorable, 32% unfavorable), which is largely unchanged from April 2008 (63% favorable).

The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted July 22-26, 2009 finds that favorability ratings of the federal government have rebounded somewhat since last year. Currently, 50% have an unfavorable opinion of the federal government while 42% express a favorable view. By comparison, in April 2008 views of the federal government were the lowest they have been in a decade (58% unfavorable, 37% favorable).

Most states are struggling during the recession and nearly all are facing revenue shortfalls. The balance of opinion regarding state governments has turned negative in states with the largest budget gaps – the size of the shortfall relative to the state’s overall budget.¹ In the 12 states facing the largest budget gaps, 58% now have an unfavorable view of their state governments while only 38% have a favorable view. In April 2008, opinion was evenly divided in these states (48% favorable, 47% unfavorable).

But the change in opinion is not limited to the states with the biggest budget problems; people in 19 states with more modest budget gaps also are expressing more negative views of their state governments. Currently, a slim majority (52%) in these states has a favorable view while 40% have an unfavorable view. In April 2008, favorable views outnumbered unfavorable ones by a wide margin (64% vs. 35%). By contrast, opinion has remained more stable in the states with the smallest budget gaps. Six-in-ten have a favorable view of their state government while only a third has an unfavorable view.

Partisan Shift in Views of Federal Government

With the change in presidential administrations, partisan views of the federal government have shifted dramatically. Currently, 61% of Democrats have a favorable opinion of the federal government, up from 29% in April 2008. By comparison, favorable views among Republicans have declined from 53% to 24% over the same period. A majority of independents (58%) express negative opinions, relatively unchanged from the spring of last year.

There continues to be much less of a partisan gap in favorability ratings of state and local governments. A majority of Republicans (57%) have a favorable opinion of their state governments, compared with 49% of Democrats and 48% of independents. When asked about their local governments, majorities across partisan lines continue to have favorable opinions.

Results for this survey are based on telephone interviews conducted under the direction of Princeton Survey Research Associates International among a nationwide sample of 1,506 adults, 18 years of age or older, from July 22-26, 2009 (1,129 respondents were interviewed on a landline telephone, and 377 were interviewed on a cell phone, including 114 who had no landline telephone). Both the landline and cell phone samples were provided by Survey Sampling International. For detailed information about our survey methodology, see https://alpha.pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/politics/methodology/.

The combined landline and cell phone sample are weighted using an iterative technique that matches gender, age, education, race/ethnicity, region, and population density to parameters from the March 2008 Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey. The sample is also weighted to match current patterns of telephone status and relative usage of landline and cell phones (for those with both), based on extrapolations from the 2008 National Health Interview Survey. The weighting procedure also accounts for the fact that respondents with both landline and cell phones have a greater probability of being included in the sample.

The following table shows the error attributable to sampling that would be expected at the 95% level of confidence for different groups in the survey:

In addition to sampling error, one should bear in mind that question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of opinion polls.