Dueling Polls: 'Stick to Jobs,' or 'Save the Bay'?

These two polls in our neighboring state of Maryland illustrate the quandary that many folks have regarding the economy versus the environment. We believe that if the recession deepens and lengthens, as many expect it will, citizens will eventually have to make a clear choice if they want economic recovery.

Do Marylanders want their government to focus for now on creating jobs over cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay? Or do they think water pollution is a serious problem that will need more government regulation - and maybe some more of taxpayers' money - to reduce?

Those are the seemingly conflicting messages that emerge from a pair of public opinion surveys done in recent weeks - one at the behest of the state's builders, the other at the bidding of a state-funded environmental grant-making group.

More than four out of five Maryland voters want the O'Malley administration to put a higher priority on creating jobs than on restoring the bay, according to the poll done in January by Gonzales Research & Marketing Inc. of Annapolis for the Maryland State Builders Association.

According to the same telephone survey of 802 registered voters, more than half - 57 percent - say economic growth should be the state's main focus, even if it means the environment suffers in the process. And a slim majority - 53 percent - say they're not willing to pay a penny more for bay cleanup and restoration.

On the other hand, in a late December telephone poll of 1,005 Marylanders, 64 percent rated water pollution in rivers, streams and the bay as a very serious problem. The survey was done by OpinionWorks, also of Annapolis, on behalf of the Chesapeake Bay Trust.

In that poll, nearly three-quarters, or 71 percent, said they think government regulation will be needed to address it. Seventy-three percent back the concept, at least, of the "pollution diet" that the Environmental Protection Agency has imposed on bay states.

On paying for bay cleanup, 49 percent of Marylanders in the bay trust poll say they're willing to shell out a "reasonable" fee if state leaders said the money was needed to control polluted runoff from storm water. That support jumps to 71 percent if people are told the storm-water fee would be enacted across the state, and that the revenue would be returned to their communities, creating jobs.

So which is closer to reflecting the public's attitudes about cleaning up the bay these days?

Steve Raabe of OpinionWorks says he thinks the Gonzales poll is based on a flawed premise that there's always a tradeoff between boosting the economy and restoring the bay. "It's a false choice," Raabe says, contending that most believe environmental protections need not hinder economic growth, and can actually help it.

Patrick Gonzales defends his firm's approach, saying there can only be one top priority at a time. He points out that in a separate poll, 58 percent of Marylanders indicated the economy was their top concern, while only 2.4 percent pointed to the environment as their biggest worry.

On one issue, at least, it seems the dueling polls agree. Both found overwhelming public support for tightening restrictions on lawn and garden fertilizers and their application, which lawmakers in Annapolis are going to be asked to consider. Eighty percent favored "strengthened regulations" in the OpinionWorks survey, while nearly two-thirds backed additional rules in the Gonzales poll.

For more on the two polls, go here and here.

http://www.homebuilders.org/