Legislative Poll: Roseville Area Residents Support Income Tax Hike for Rich

Roseville area residents want lawmakers to focus on jobs, the economy and education, according to a non-scientific poll conducted by the offices of state Rep. Mindy Greiling and state Sen. John Marty.

Sixty-one percent of polled citizens said “jobs and the economy” should be one of the legislature’s top three priorities in the 2012 session, and 53 percent included “K-12 education” in their list.

The vast majority (79 percent) of citizens included in Greiling and Marty’s poll said they would support an income tax increase on Minnesotans earning more than $500,000 a year if the hike would lower property taxes.

“Being a single parent supporting a family of four is already difficult,” one citizen wrote in the survey. “The property tax increase takes food off my table and gas to fill my car.”

Other findings:

• Eighty-seven percent of polled citizens said they would support legislation to ensure schools were paid back the $3.5 billion borrowed in 2011 to balance the state budget.
• Fifty-three percent of polled citizens said they would not support a state expansion of gambling to pay for the Vikings Stadium.
• Seventy-six percent of polled citizens said they would not support sulfide mining on the Iron Range.