Floridians are feeling a lot better about their local governments these days, and are more critical than ever about Washington D.C. Those are just some of the takeaways derived from the Sunshine State Survey administered by the USF School of Public Affairs and Neilsen, and released on Thursday morning.
The survey of 1,800 Florida citizens shows that the federal government consistently receives the lowest marks for job performance; state government is in the middle, while county and city governments typically receive the highest grades.
Specifically, 46 percent of those surveyed rated county government as good and excellent, a jump from 28 percent in 2012, the last time the survey was conducted. Ratings for city governments grew from 31 percent in 2012 to 42 percent this year.
"Local government has become much more savvy in terms of communicating with their constituents," said USF Political Science Professor Susan MacManus, who hosted a conference call on Thursday to discuss the findings. MacManus mentioned improved websites and the advent of social media as factors contributing to those improved ratings, along with the fact that with the worst of the recession now over, local governments have been able to stop cutting personnel and services after years of doing so.
Not surprisingly, jobs and the economy are still a concern, with 30 percent of respondents saying it's the top issue. That's actually down from 2012, when 44 percent said it was the biggest issue. And it's considerably lower than at the beginning of the recession in 2007, when 56 percent said it was the number one concern in Florida.
A distant second in the new survey at 12 percent is Education K-12/Public Schools. Crime and immigration are tied for third at 5 percent, followed by the environment/climate change/off-shore drilling at 4 percent.
With Congress at record-low ratings (and seemingly never in session), it also shouldn't come as a surprise that Floridians are so down on our national political scene. Forty-one percent said they thought the federal government is doing a poor job, and an additional 35 percent said it was only fair. "We’re in an era [of] a reality television show society where bashing people may be entertaining, but it erodes trust in institutions," Professor MacManus said.
When it came to naming what they believe is the most important trait for a leader, be it in business, politics or the nonprofit sector, 61 percent named integrity or honesty as tops. Just 10 percent of respondents thought that consensus building/bipartisanship is the most important trait for a leader, while only 3 percent said that vision was the most important trait for a leader.
"This suggests that people are not looking for public officials with long-term plans but instead someone that can be trusted to lead the state as challenges arise," MacManus said in the report.
The survey also showed that highest level of trust is with social service/nonprofit leaders.