George Israel: First Annual Chamber Poll Shows 'Clear Priorities Are In Play' This Session

(12/28/07) The Georgia Chamber of Commerce released details Friday of its first annual “Pre-Legislative Survey,” and said the poll reveals five clear policy priorities and one unmistakable message for the 2008 legislative session that opens on Jan. 14.

Nearly one-quarter of those surveyed chose health care and water as the top issues “for the governor and the Georgia General Assembly to deal with.” Right behind were education (almost 18%), property taxes (13%) and transportation (12.4 %).

“Clear priorities are in play for this session,” said Georgia Chamber of Commerce president George Israel. “The voters expect tangible action on some of the most important issues of our day.”

Israel said the results of the poll -- conducted by InsiderAdvantage/Majority Opinion Research Dec. 17-18, among 823 Georgians who are likely voters in the February 5 presidential primaries -- largely mirror the priorities of the Georgia Chamber’s Board of Directors. (The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.)

Republican respondents to the poll ranked water and property tax reform, in that order, as their top two concerns, with health care third, and transportation and education tied for fourth. Democrats surveyed gave a clear edge to health care (32.4% rated it their top issue for legislators’ attention), followed by water and education.

A separate, internal survey of members of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, in response to the question, “For your business, what issue do you believe is the most important issue that must be addressed during the 2008 legislative session?” shows water, education, and transportation reform and funding far and away as the most important priorities for the organization’s leadership.

The Georgia Chamber’s leadership responded that water management was their number one priority for the upcoming session (32 percent), followed by education/workforce development (19 percent) and transportation (15 percent).

Table 1 reveals the responses to this question: "In your opinion, what is the most important issue for the governor and the General Assembly to deal with?" Click here for the table in Microsoft Word format.

The Chamber said that Georgia’s business leaders are markedly more optimistic than voters in general when it comes to the future of the state. Georgians seem evenly split on the whether or not Georgia is “heading in the right direction or the wrong direction,” while members of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce’s Board overwhelmingly (90.5 percent) believe that “Georgia’s business climate is generally heading in the right direction.” When asked, “A year from now, do you think business conditions will be better, the same or worse,” 84% of the business leaders said better or the same.

The InsiderAdvantage/Georgia Chamber poll showed a picture of optimism among Republican voters while Democrats and Independents were more pessimistic, almost 70% of likely Democratic voters saying the state was heading the wrong direction and 62% of Independent voters.

Table 2 reveals responses to this question: For your business, what issue do you believe is the most important issue that must be addressed during the 2008 legislative session? Click here for the table in Microsoft Word format.

On the issue of whether or not the Georgia General Assembly should pass a law to outlaw employment policies that ask employees to leave their guns at home, voters – and especially Republican voters – were unambiguously opposed: just 18 percent of surveyed Republican-likely voters supported such legislation; 64 percent were opposed.

“What a monumental waste of the General Assembly’s time,” Israel said, “for our elected leaders to spend time debating whether or not to usurp the rights of employers to determine if, when and how firearms can be brought onto their premises.”

A separate poll released yesterday by GeorgiaCarry.org, “a citizens advocacy group working toward the reform of Georgia’s poorly written, overly restrictive, ignored-by-the-courts gun laws,” showed 64 percent of all Georgians agree that government should not interfere with the rights of “property owners to set rules as to whether or not guns or weapons could be carried on [their] premises,” mirroring the Georgia Chamber Pre-Legislative Survey results.

The GeorgiaCarry.org poll is especially noteworthy, Israel added. “Democrats, Republicans, gun owners, and business folks are overwhelmingly opposed to the idea that government would pass a law telling private business they must allow employees to bring their guns to work over the objection of the ownership.”

The Chamber cited this story in InsiderAdvantage, which quoted the GeorgiaCarry poll as showing that 78 percent of those responding to the survey were gun owners.

Table 3 reveals responses to this question: Do you favor or oppose legislation that would restrict private businesses from prohibiting their employees from carrying a gun or firearm in their car while on company property? Click here for the table in Microsoft Word format.

The Georgia Chamber survey also asked voters their preference in the upcoming presidential primary race. The InsiderAdvantage poll for the Georgia Chamber of Commerce shows Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are in a statistical dead heat in Georgia’s Democratic presidential primary race, and that Mike Huckabee has taken a big lead on the Republican side. Georgia’s presidential primary will be held February 5, 2008.

Tables 4 and 5 show the results of the horserace. Click here to see them both. Microsoft Word format.