California Business Roundtable

The California Business Roundtable and Pepperdine University School of Public Policy today released the full results of the first 2013 statewide issue survey on issues affecting California’s business climates and jobs. Today’s release includes Californians’ views on jobs and the economy.

“The survey found jobs and the economy remain the number one issue for Californians,” said Rob Lapsley, President, California Business Roundtable. “Our results show that Californians have a cautious outlook on the future of the state’s economy and jobs which also impacts their views on raising taxes or increasing energy costs.”

“Energy costs have a tremendous impact on businesses, jobs, the economy and individuals’ household economic situations. As lawmakers make decisions on how to address policy issues like energy they must do so in a way that does not adversely impact the state’s economy or Californians’ bottom line,” said Jeff Harrelson, MFour Research.

The survey found more than 75% of Californians currently believe taxes are too high “Californians are in no mood to raise taxes,” added Dr. Michael Shires, Pepperdine University School of Public Policy. “When more than three-quarters believe taxes are too high and less than half support taxing energy to pay for other state programs, it should be a clear signal to lawmakers to tread carefully as they make decisions on this year’s state budget.”

Click here to view the full results or crosstabs.

About the methodology: MFour Research, a public opinion and market research firm fielded the survey. It was distributed to 825 California registered voters (240 Republicans, 362 Democrats, and 223 No Party Preference/Voters of another party) from April 26 to April 29, 2013. Registered voters were identified by self-identification. A Spanish language version of the study was provided to 57 respondents.

Panelists were recruited from a variety of online-panel sources and invited to complete surveys in exchange for monetary compensation, typically in the form of redeemable points, provided through their panel provider.

Prospective participants were invited via email from their panel provider to participate in a survey on “public issues” and told the approximate length of time and value for completion. The cash value for participation in this survey was approximately 50 to 75 cents.

Samples were weighted by gender, age, ethnicity, education, region of residence in California, and voter party registration to reflect the California registered voter counts. Demographic weighting targets were based on census estimates and voter-file projections.

A sample size of 825 produces a margin of error of +/- 3.5% at the 95th percent confidence interval. In addition to sampling error, the types of questions being asked and methodological difficulties in conducting surveys can produce error and/or bias in the findings.

Survey administration and reporting was conducted in accordance with the Council of American Survey Research Organization (CASRO) standards.