Even as statehouse candidates pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into campaigns focused on taxes, a new poll shows that very few Kansans were aware of the tax cuts approved by the Legislature this year.
The new Kansas Speaks poll by researchers at Fort Hays State University found that just 4.6% of the 645 adults polled knew about tax cuts that dominated the last legislative session and now figures into legislative campaigns across the state.
The poll found that 35.2% knew a little about the tax bill and 60.2% knew nothing or very little about the legislation that cut taxes by about $1.2 billion over the next three years and moves the state to a two-tiered rate.
The bill cut income taxes, eliminated income tax on Social Security and offers some property tax relief while providing an expanded tax credit for child and dependent care.
The bill was criticized for not doing enough to cut property taxes, and the Fort Hays State poll found that a little more than 50% of those polled believed that property taxes presented some type of threat to them remaining in their home.
About 11% said annual property taxes were a “large threat” to them staying in their
home and about 20% said they were a “moderate threat,” while about 23.2% viewed them as a “small threat.” About 34% didn’t see them as a threat and about 11% didn’t know.
Most of those polled expressed concern about housing costs in Kansas.
About 68% of those surveyed agreed that they were worried about housing costs.
About 60% said that their community is hurt by the lack of affordable homes to rent, and about 57% shared a similar view about the lack of affordable homes.
And only 37% of those surveyed said a sufficiently available number of homes in their community, and about the same percentage disagreed.
As is customary, the survey tested the popularity of elected officials in Kansas.
While the poll showed that former President Donald Trump is more popular than Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, the gap narrows when the question was limited to registered voters.
Among all of those polled, 46.3% would vote for Trump and 36.5% would vote for Harris
if the 2024 presidential election were held when they took the survey, which was conducted from Sept. 26 to Oct. 16, 2024.
After excluding those who indicated they didn’t plan to vote or couldn’t vote, 49.9%
would vote for Trump and 39.4% would vote for Harris.
Among the registered voters who planned to vote, 48.2% would vote for Trump, and 43.2% would vote for Harris.
Kansans generally expressed faith in the state’s election systems even as some have expressed skepticism about the results.
About 61% of Kansas surveyed said they were confident that the reported winners of the elections in Kansas are actually the candidates that most Kansans supported.
About 10% were not confident in the results of those elections, 18.7% were neutral, and 10.4% said they didn’t know.
The poll found that 52.3% of respondents felt vote fraud was generally not a problem in Kansas elections and 12.4% believed that fraud was a problem in Kansas elections.
About 53% believed that Kansas should not eliminate early voting and about 47% opposed the idea of eliminating voting by mail.
About 15% believed that early voting should be abolished and 23% believe that voting by mail should be outlawed.
There was a little more division over ballot drop boxes, which have been targeted by lawmakers in recent years.
Less than a majority of those surveyed – 43.5% – opposed banning ballot drop boxes.
About 24% supported banning the receptacles and 24% had no opinion.
In other findings:
- About 41% indicated they felt Kansas was on the “right track”, which was lower than 2023 (46.3%) and 2022 (52.3%). About 34% believed Kansas was on the “wrong track” in 2024, the highest in three years. About 27% said the state was on the wrong track in 2022, and about 30% said it was on the wrong track in 2023.
- About 46% of those polled indicated Kansas is a “very good” or “excellent” place to live, and 5.8% said Kansas is a “poor” or “very poor” place to live.
- About 21% of those who participated in the survey believe the state economy is “very good” or “excellent” this year, higher than the past two years. About 15% felt the economy was “poor” or “very poor,” lower than 2023 but slightly higher than 2022.
- About 51.2% of respondents felt that inflation had affected their family “a great deal,” and 55.9% felt that inflation had affected other Kansans “a great deal.”
- About 58% of those interviewed said they would be living in the same community that they live in now, 15.2% said they would be moving to another location in Kansas, and 15.2% said they would relocate to a state other than Kansas. The percentage of Kansans who said they planned to move out of Kansas in 2024 is lower than the past two years. It was 19.9% last year and 16.3% in 2022.
- About 86% of Kansans interviewed believed that high-quality, affordable infant and toddler child care was extremely or highly important for families in Kansas, regardless of whether or not they had young children. About 11% believed felt it was “slightly important” or “not important at all.” And about 79% agreed that access to affordable child care strengthened the economy. Also, about 75% said state government should pass laws making child care more accessible.
- The survey found that 50.4% of those surveyed were somewhat or strongly opposed to new laws that restrict access to abortion passed by the Kansas Legislature after voters rejected a constitutional amendment that would have removed the right to an abortion from the state constitution. About 25% supported those laws. And about 65% agreed that women are in a better position than politicians to make their own choices about whether to get an abortion.
