Latest Poll on Green Light Pinellas

The latest Poll on the Greenlight Pinellas sales tax referendum was commissioned by local surgeon Dr. David McKalip.

You can see the full results and charts at The Sun Beam Times 61% say “No Tax Hike” for Pinellas Rail. Few Will Ride the St. Petersburg-Clearwater Train.

The poll results are as follows:

The poll started as follows: “This is quick poll on the Greenlight Pinellas sales tax referendum in November.”

Do you support raising sales taxes to build a commuter train from St. Petersburg to Clearwater?
Yes: 38.7%
No: 45.3%
Not sure: 16.1%

Are you likely to ride a train between St. Petersburg and Clearwater on a regular basis?
Yes: 17.6%
No: 73.9%
Not sure: 8.5%

Were you aware that Sales taxes will be raised from 7 cents to 8 cents, a 14% increase, creating the highest sales tax in Florida?
Yes: 37.4%
No: 56.3%
Not sure: 6.2% 

Do you still support raising sales taxes to build a commuter train from St. Petersburg to Clearwater?
(This question was only asked to 1095 people who said Yes or Not Sure to the first question)
Yes: 55.2%
No: 30.0%
Not sure: 14.8%

Overall support for raising sales taxes to build a commuter train from St. Petersburg to Clearwater, (including fourth question change of responses):
Yes: 30.1%
No: 60.9%
Not sure: 9.0% 

There has been a lot of carping that the poll questions are skewed, and from a purely scientific poling perspective they probably are.

But for the most part they seem to be the questions the public would like answered.

The Poll seems to show that once people get some of the underlying facts about the sales tax/GreenLight effort they have pretty strong opinions.

Interesting piece in the St. Petersburg Tribune by Christopher O'Donnell Rail Backers Say Pinellas poll skews results. Even the headline is telling "Rail Backers..." You don't see the bus backers because in reality there are not any. At least none willing to require that the money is spent on buses

The people who really want this $100 million dollar annual tax windfall are the people defined in the very last line of the article "A consortium, of Realtors and development firms...". Not exactly people you would bump into on a bus or train ride for that matter.

As a Realtor or development firm, if you haven't already ponyed up to a GreenLight PAC, you might want to think twice about throwing your support to an effort over half of the public seems to think is a bad idea. You can probably get more political bang for your buck elsewhere.

Add your comments below.
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Disclosures: Contributor to No Tax for Tracks