By BRIAN PORTER | The Rocky Mountain Voice
A large swath of voters may be concerned with the direction of the state and with items ranging from tax burden to cost of living and education, painting a pessimistic picture in an election year, a poll conducted in late 2023 finds.
The Colorado Polling Institute survey finds 43.1% of likely voters believe the state to be on the wrong track, with 67% of Republicans and 45% of unaffiliated voters holding that view. Half of those who have resided in the state for at least 20 years believe Colorado is on the wrong track. Only 50.4% of likely voters surveyed believe the state is on the right track.
The poll was taken among 621 voters with a margin of error of 3.8%.
About one-fourth of those surveyed believe state and local taxes are about right, with 60.7% holding the view taxes are too high, including 79% of Republicans, 59% of unaffiliated voters and 47% of Democrats.
The top priorities for state lawmakers to address should be cost of living (40.4%), followed by crime (29.2%), affordable housing (28.0%) and homelessness (25.1%), the survey found. Homelessness outranked crime concerns for those residing in Metro Denver. Democrats, Republicans, unaffiliated voters and respondents of all ethnicities ranked cost of living as the highest concern.
The poll also found about one-third of respondents would be unlikely or only at best likely to recommend the state as a place to reside, which meshes with 62.5% believing the state would get a little or much worse in terms of being a good place to purchase a home. Additionally, 40.6% indicated pessimism toward the state being a good place to raise a family in the future, and more than a third indicated the quality of education would decline in the future.
Democrat, Republican and unaffiliated voters were in unison toward pessimism on the economy, with more than 50% in each affiliation and 59.1% overall believing “too often, a good standard of living is unattainable in Colorado, even if you work hard and play by the rules.”
The poll additionally found 37.3% trust the state government, marginally better than the 36.5% who trust traditional media. Small businesses were trusted by 69.4% in the survey.