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For Immediate Release
Dec. 12, 2007

 

CONNECTICUT RESIDENTS AND THE BUSINESS COMMUNITY HAVE THE SAME CONCERNS, ACCORDING TO A NEW CBIA/ZOGBY POLL
Improve current health care system and reject a state takeover

 

Connecticut residents are aligned with the business community when it comes to identifying the most important issues facing Connecticut, according to a new CBIA/Zogby poll released today.

Taxes and spending, economic growth and job creation, education, and health care are the most important issues facing Connecticut, according to state residents who participated in the poll. Twice as many people believe business taxes are too high than too low in Connecticut. And two-thirds of respondents said the tax and spending levels of the current state budget are too high.

"It's clear that these issues are of great importance to everyone in Connecticut — its residents as well as the business community,” said John R. Rathgeber, CBIA president and CEO. “Our elected leaders must listen to what the people of Connecticut are saying and act in a fiscally responsible way that encourages economic growth and job creation, and improves education opportunities for our students.”

Health care
The majority (83 percent) of Connecticut residents responding to the survey said they are satisfied with their health insurance, and they don't believe a taxpayer-funded state government-run health care system would make it better. Sixty-five percent of the respondents said they oppose raising state taxes to pay for a new, multibillion-dollar, state-government-run health care system. Nearly three-quarters (74 percent) said the best way to reform the current system is to control health care costs and make private insurance more affordable.

"The rising cost of health care is making it difficult for companies to remain competitive in Connecticut,” said Rathgeber. “Lawmakers must take action to reform our health care system by focusing on the strength of the current employer-based system and ways to improve it. They can do that by concentrating on three key areas: reducing the cost drivers in the system, improving the quality of health care and making certain that the uninsured have access to health care. But a state takeover isn't the answer.”

"Most Connecticut adults are pleased with their health care and think it should remain a private-sector industry,” pollster John Zogby said. “This fits with other Zogby polling nationwide that shows people sense changes need to be made to the health care industry, but that they do not trust government to take it over."

Education
When it comes to receiving a quality education, almost all (90 percent) residents responding to the poll said they are satisfied with their children's education, but the majority (85 percent) support raising academic standards in public schools for all students so they are better prepared to enter college or the workforce.

"It's critical that the state makes policy changes to Connecticut's education system to provide students with the higher skills necessary to be successful in today's high-tech global economy,” said Lauren Weisberg Kaufman, CBIA vice president for education and job training and executive director of the association's Education Foundation. “By better educating Connecticut's school children, more opportunities will be open to them for postsecondary education and high-wage employment. Connecticut will be able to retain its world-class workforce, businesses will remain competitive, and our economy will be able to compete globally.”

CBIA is the state's largest business organization, with 10,000 members.

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The survey is available at www.cbia.com/newsroom/surveys.

For more information contact Nancy Andrews, CBIA media relations manager, at 860-244-1957 or andrewsn@cbia.com.

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