Top Stories Milwaukee

Chris Abele, Milwaukee’s newly elected county executive takes office amid a low in public faith in county government. A new poll by the Public Policy Forum finds just 36 percent of Milwaukee County residents believe their county government is headed in the right direction. They are also greatly concerned about the state budget.

Surrounding counties enjoy far greater optimism about their local government. In Ozaukee County, 74 percent approve of their county government’s course. In Waukesha County, 72 percent approve, and in Washington County, 69 percent endorse their government’s direction.

chris abele

Milwaukee County’s low approval rating is nothing new, but it’s slipped even lower in recent years, according to the survey. In September 2009, a previous edition of the same survey, the Forum’s People Speak poll, put the figure at 42 percent.

Results from both the 2009 poll and the new edition released in late March, based on telephone surveys of about 400 Southeastern Wisconsin residents, show that faith in the federal government is abysmal, with only about a third responding that it’s headed in the right direction. Faith in state government increased slightly from 41 percent in 2009 to 43 percent in 2011.

A Forum report notes that despite a changing of the guard in state government, a shift from total Democratic control to total Republican control, most residents still feels it’s “on the wrong track.”

Respondents were also asked to identify the most important issue “facing the seven-county Milwaukee region.” In several such polls between 2009 and 2011, residents identified “jobs” as the top issue, but in the survey just released, “state budget” topped the ranking with 34 percent of votes. Jobs, which garnered 45 percent in November 2010, fell to just 19 percent.

Rob Henken, president of the Public Policy Forum, said the degree to which jobs fell in the ranking was surprising “given the continued measured nature of economic recovery and continued high unemployment” in Wisconsin.

The report notes, however, that the state budget, as proposed by Gov. Scott Walker, has dominated public discourse in recent weeks. “Citizens’ definitions of important issues often coincide with high-profile public debate,” it says.

In the 2011 survey, about half of the respondents were from Milwaukee County; 31 percent were from Waukesha County; 13 percent were from Washington County; and seven percent were from Ozaukee County. About 33 percent identified themselves as Democrats; 32 percent said they were Republicans; and 27 percent described themselves as independents.

Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.