Poll Finds Continued Support for Governor, Health Care Reform Deal

Although 58% of respondents said the state is going in the wrong direction, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) retains the support of 60% of registered voters, according to a Los Angeles Times poll.

The poll findings come after the governor announced his proposal to address California's projected $14.5 billion budget deficit by cutting state spending on most programs, including health care and education. Interviews for the poll were conducted from Friday to Sunday.

Despite the governor's continued public support, more than half of registered voters said they would prefer that the state collect additional revenue than rely solely on spending cuts to address the deficit. Among Republicans, however, 57% back the governor's strategy of tackling the deficit by reducing state spending, the poll found.

Beyond the budget, 57% of registered voters said they support Schwarzenegger's plan to expand health insurance coverage.

The poll included responses from 1,205 California adults, including 1,054 registered voters. The margin of error was plus or minus three percentage points (Halper, Los Angeles Times, 1/16).

"The proposed budget would ... imprudently result in California forfeiting hundreds of millions of dollars back to the federal government that we can no longer match, particularly in the area of health care," Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez (D-Los Angeles) writes in a Sacramento Bee opinion piece.

"How can we make the case for California ever getting our fair share from the feds if we blithely turn away what little money is coming our way?" Núñez asks.

"It will take creativity -- and no small measure of courage -- to turn this proposal into a final budget that better reflects the values and aspirations of the people of California," Núñez writes (Núñez, Sacramento Bee, 1/16).

KPBS' "KPBS News" on Tuesday reported on how the governor's budget proposal would affect federal matching funds for Medi-Cal. The segment includes comments from Senate Health Committee Chair Sheila Kuehl (D-Los Angeles) (Goldberg, "KPBS News," KPBS, 1/15).

Audio and a transcript of the segment are available online.