Utahns are feeling better about how things are going in Utah and in the country these days, the latest Deseret News/KSL-TV poll shows.
The optimistic swing started after the 1988 elections. The negative feelings about Utah and the country first showed up after 1987's record tax increases, approved by the Legislature and Gov. Norm Bangerter, a review of polls conducted for the newspaper and TV station by Dan Jones & Associates shows (see chart at right).The questions show a general attitude among the citizenry, says Jones. He routinely asks the questions once a year or so to measure over time how satisfied or unsatisfied the population is.
Politicians, especially those up for re-election, are sensitive to the numbers. Good times mean an incumbent will likely be re-elected. Bad times indicate he or she is in for a struggle. So, in a general sense, the latest poll is good news for Utah's mayors and city council members who are seeking re-election Nov. 7.
In October 1986, two months before Bangerter suggested a record $200 million tax increase, Jones found that 62 percent of Utahns were satisfied with the way things were going, 36 percent unsatisfied.
In May 1987, after the Legislature had approved a $165 million tax hike, Jones found that 62 percent of Utahns believed the state was on the wrong track with only 32 percent who thought things were going well.
That's a big switch.
The negative attitude remained through 1987 and most of 1988, until after the November elections when Bangerter won a 2 percentage point victory over Democrat Ted Wilson.
In March 1988, Jones found that 57 percent of Utahns still thought the state was on the wrong track, 34 percent thought things were going well.
But by January 1989, two months after the election, 50 percent thought things were going well and 42 percent thought they were seriously off track, Jones found. Bangerter and the Legislature gave a tax decrease just before the election and promised more tax cuts ahead.
The latest poll shows that the optimistic feeling continues to grow.
It's not just the elections that caused the turnaround, of course. The economy has continued to improve and the state's unemployment rate is around 4 percent - such a low number that economists say it is considered full employment.
Last June, Utah was picked as the U.S. Olympics Committee's bid city for the 1998 Winter Games, a designation many Utahns believe is a good thing.
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Poll
Generally speaking, do you feel things in the state are going in the right direction or do you feel things are on the wrong track?
Right track 55 percent
Wrong track 35 percent
Don't know 9 percent
Do you feel things in the country as a whole are going in the right direction or do you feel things are on the wrong track?
Right track 54 Percent
Wrong track 40 percent
Don't know 6 percent
Sample size: 603; margin of error plus or minus 4 percent