Strong Support For Many Cuomo Proposals;
Huge Support for $2B Clean Water Act; Buy
American, Uber/Lyft & Millionaire’s Tax Extension
Voters Say Trump’s Actions Will Make Nation’s Infrastructure & Relationship with Russia Better; Overwhelmingly Say on Race Relations & Environment His Actions Will Make the Country Worse
Trump’s Favorability Rating, Already Under Water, Falls a Little; Obama Leaves Stage Very Popular with NYers; State Assembly & Senate Have Best Ever Favorability Ratings in Siena College Poll; Cuomo Ratings: Flat
Loudonville, NY. Many of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s State of the State and Executive Budget proposals enjoy widespread support from New Yorkers. And while the State Senate and Assembly saw their favorability ratings rise to their best level ever, Cuomo’s ratings with voters are essentially unchanged since last month, according to a new Siena College poll of New York State registered voters released today.
New Yorkers think President Donald Trump, with a negative 37-55 percent favorability rating, down from negative 41-53 percent last month, will make America better through his infrastructure policies and his policies dealing with the relationship between the United States and Russia. On seven other issues, New Yorkers think he will make America worse, including large majorities when it comes to the environment and race relations.
“Cuomo’s agenda for 2017 is chock full of proposals – some new, some old – and many of them enjoy strong bipartisan support, while several others are supported by a majority of New Yorkers despite Republican opposition,” said Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg. “His four most popular proposals are creating a
$2 billion clean water infrastructure fund, giving preference in state purchases to American-made goods, allowing ride sharing services like Uber and Lyft to operate across the state, and extending the millionaire’s tax, which even has the support of 61 percent of Republicans.
“There is also bipartisan support for the middle class child care tax credit, renovating JFK Airport, and constitutional amendments to limit state legislators’ outside income and implement term limits,” Greenberg said. “Minus Republican support, voter support free SUNY/CUNY tuition and closing LLC loophole proposals.”
Cuomo has a 56-37 percent favorability rating, from 56-36 percent in December. His job performance rating is a negative 45-53 percent, little changed from negative 44-54 percent last month. Currently, 47 percent are prepared to re-elect Cuomo in 2018, while 44 percent would prefer ‘someone else,’ unchanged from December.
“While voters like his proposals and he traveled the state promoting them, it did not help boost Cuomo’s ratings, which continue a two-year trend of little fluctuation. Since March 2015, Cuomo’s favorability rating has been between 49 and 57 percent every month and his positive job performance rating has been between 39 and 45 percent,” Greenberg said. “By 50-42 percent, voters say Cuomo should not be a leader in the opposition to Trump. Only a majority of Democrats, black and young voters think he should be a leader in the opposition.
State Senate & Assembly Hit Best Ever Favorability Ratings
The State Senate has a 49-36 percent favorability rating, up from 48-39 percent in December, while the Assembly has 45-35 percent favorability rating, up from 43-40 percent last month. For both houses, it’s both the highest favorability and lowest unfavorability rating ever in a Siena College Poll.
“Perhaps it’s a result of coming off an election season where legislators were successful in promoting themselves and their accomplishments. Perhaps it’s because no legislator has been indicted or convicted with a new scandal in the last few months. Whatever the cause, the result is the Assembly has a plus 10 favorability rating and the Senate has a plus 13 favorability rating – the best ever for each house,” Greenberg said.
NYers: Trump Will Improve America on Infrastructure & US-Russia Relations; Worsen America on Other Issues; Most Negative on Environment & Race Relations
“A strong majority of New Yorkers believes that the actions Trump takes on infrastructure will make America better, including a majority of Democrats. That’s the only issue, however, that Democrats think Trump will make America better. A plurality of voters say the President will make America better regarding the relationship between the United States and Russia,” Greenberg said. “The two issues where voters say Trump will make the country worse by two-to-one margins, are the environment and race relations.
“A large majority of Republicans think he will make America better on all nine issues tested, while a majority of independents say he will make America better on infrastructure and a plurality say he will make America better on health care and US-Russia relations,” Greenberg said.
“As Trump begins his presidency with a negative 37-55 favorability rating, Barack Obama leaves the presidency with his best favorability rating, 67-30 percent, since August 2009. Only Republicans, conservatives and Catholics have a favorable view of Trump, while only Republicans and conservatives have an unfavorable view of Obama,” Greenberg said. “A small majority of New Yorkers, 51-47 percent are pessimistic about the country’s future under President Trump; last month voters were nearly evenly divided, 49-48 percent optimistic.”
This Siena College Poll was conducted January 22-26, 2017 by telephone calls conducted in English to 812 New York State registered voters. Respondent sampling was initiated by asking for the youngest male in the household. It has an overall margin of error of +/- 3.9 percentage points including the design effects resulting from weighting. Sampling was conducted via a stratified dual frame probability sample of landline and cell phone telephone numbers (both from Survey Sampling International) from within New York State weighted to reflect known population patterns. Data was statistically adjusted by age, party, region and gender to ensure representativeness. The Siena College Research Institute, directed by Donald Levy, Ph.D., conducts political, economic, social and cultural research primarily in NYS. SRI, an independent, non-partisan research institute, subscribes to the American Association of Public Opinion Research Code of Professional Ethics and Practices. For more information, call Steve Greenberg at (518) 469-9858. For survey cross-tabs: www.Siena.edu/SCRI/SNY.
