Californians for the first time are naming the historic drought as the most important issue facing the state, and most say their neighbors aren’t doing enough about it, a new survey finds.
The Public Policy Institute of California’s poll found that 39 percent of Golden State residents believe the most important issue is “water and drought” — almost twice the 20 percent who are most concerned with jobs and the economy. The concern varies widely by region: 53 percent of Central Valley residents mentioned it as the most pressing issue; 42 percent of Bay Area residents did so; and only 31 percent did so in Los Angeles, which is reliant on water brought down from Northern California.
Overall, 69 percent of Californians say the water supply in their part of the state is a big problem — a record high since the PPIC survey first asked this question in 2009. And only 28 percent say people in their part of the state are doing enough to respond to the drought, while 60 percent say their neighbors are not doing enough.
“There’s still a lot of belief out there that it’s up to the other people in the region to do more than they’re currently doing,” said Mark Baldassare, the PPIC’s president and CEO.
But that could change, as Gov. Jerry Brown has ordered cities and towns to implement water restrictions to cut the state’s water use by a quarter. The PPIC poll found 46 percent of Californians believe Brown’s edict is enough to address the problem, while 36 percent say it isn’t enough and 12 percent say it’s too much.
Soon Californians will be “actually confronting the realities of having to make reductions themselves,” Baldassare said. “So those opinions may be shifting when people are actually asked and required to reduce — and maybe penalized for not doing enough.”
The institute’s survey of 1,706 California adults, conducted May 17 through May 27, also found that 67 percent of Californians and 65 percent of public school parents say children shouldn’t be allowed to attend public schools unless they’re vaccinated — a hot issue facing the Legislature right now, as some parents fight such requirements.
And 57 percent of adults and 54 percent of public school parents say vaccines given to children are very safe, while 30 percent of adults and 34 percent of public school parents say they’re somewhat safe.
“These numbers were consistent with what we saw earlier in the year in national polls,” Baldassare said.
Poll respondent Mona Olivan, 65, a retired law enforcement officer from Discovery Bay, said schoolchildren should be vaccinated because “the community has a right not to be infected by other people.”
The poll found strong support for Brown’s budget plan, including the proposed Earned Income Tax Credit and the tuition-freeze compromise Brown struck with University of California President Janet Napolitano. Voters remain split, however, on whether to extend the Proposition 30 sales and income tax increases; to make a “split-roll” change to Proposition 13; and to tax oil and natural gas extraction. There’s strong support for a cigarette tax increase, but extending the state sales tax to services such as hair-cutting looks unpopular.
Baldassare said with taxes, the devil is always in the details.
“The idea of changing our tax system and providing more resources for schools is always favorably viewed in California, but the reality of making specific changes and specific tax increases always face difficult hurdles,” he said. “Many Californians believe we’re not using the current revenues as efficiently as we could.”
Almost half of Californians — 47 percent — approve of Brown’s handling of the drought in general, while 38 percent disapprove and 15 percent say they don’t know; among likely voters, 44 percent approve, 47 percent disapprove, and 10 percent don’t know.
The poll’s margins of error are plus or minus 3.6 percentage points for all adults; 4 points for registered voters; and 4.6 points for likely voters.
Sheri Grech, of San Mateo, said she doesn’t think that people are taking the drought seriously enough, but that Brown is trying his best.
“What can he really do? He’s doing what he can, but it’s not him — it’s everybody,” said Grech, 55, who works in a senior care home. “I don’t think people know what saving water really is. … We’re between a rock and a hard place. That’s all I can tell you.”
