Poll has bad news for tea party, tax hike in Illinois

Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka has warned that rolling back the temporary state income tax increase “will cause the state to have a heart attack,” but that’s just fine with a majority of Illinois residents, a newly-released poll shows.

The poll, conducted by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute, shows that 56.1 percent of registered voters “oppose” keeping the tax rate at 5 percent, while 32.6 percent say they “strongly oppose” it.

While a majority do oppose a tax increase extension, views on it appear to be softening. The Spring 2014 poll had opposition to it at 60.3 percent.

The poll also shows support for the tea party is on the decline. In 2010, 41.2 percent of those surveyed said they agree or strongly agree with the tea party. Now, that number is cut nearly in half to 20.7. There’s also a much larger group of people who are altogether indifferent to the tea party. In 2010, 19.4 percent of those polled were, compared to 36.9 percent in 2014.

The poll was conducted via live telephone interviews among 1,006 registered voters from Sept. 23 to Oct. 15.