Ohioans Expect Kasich to Break Tax Pledge, Quinnipiac Poll Says

Jan. 19 (Bloomberg) -- More than half of Ohio residents surveyed said Governor John Kasich, who took office last week, will break a campaign promise and raise taxes, a Quinnipiac University poll found.

Sixty-one percent of respondents opposed raising taxes, with 58 percent doubting Kasich’s ability to balance the budget without increasing them, according to the poll released today. Fifty-three percent of Ohioans support the Republican’s plan to cut services rather than raise taxes.

“Ohioans do not want a tax increase to deal with the budget crisis but are skeptical that Governor Kasich will be able to avoid one,” Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said in a statement.

Kasich, 58, a former congressman and television host, campaigned on a pledge to lower taxes. In November he defeated Democratic incumbent Ted Strickland with about 49 percent of the vote. After a week in office, Kasich has a 30 percent approval rating with 48 percent of voters undecided, Quinnipiac said.

The Hamden, Connecticut-based university surveyed 1,299 registered voters from Jan. 12 to Jan. 17. Live interviewers called land lines and mobile phones. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points.

--Editors: Mark Schoifet, Stephen Merelman

To contact the reporter on this story: Matt Robinson at mrobinson55@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Tannenbaum at mtannen@bloomberg.net.