by Jon Styf
While Tennessee residents say they believe overall things are going well in the state, they also say they are worse off than a year before in a recent poll.
A Beacon Center poll of 1,120 residents across the political spectrum said that 55% were satisfied with how things are going in the state while 38% are not satisfied.
But just 14% of Tennessee residents said they are better off than last year while 46% said that they are worse off than at the same time in 2022 and 41% said they were the same.
The poll asked residents a wide variety of questions between June 14 and June 22.
Of those polled, 31% said that paying their mortgage or rent was a regular concern while 37% said it was a concern sometimes and 32% said it was rarely or never a concern.
The poll specifically pointed to earlier in the year, when Tennessee House Republicans voted to expel both Rep. Justin Jones, D-Nashville, and Justin Pearson, D-Memphis, after the pair broke House rules during a protest for gun control laws.
Just 39% of those polled supported the expulsion while 17% did not have an opinion and 39% also disapproved of the decision. Of those polled, 61% of Republicans approved the move and 15% disapproved while just 23% of Democrats approved the move and 63% disapproved.
The poll also asked if Tennessee was a good model for other states, with 53% saying no and 38% saying yes. The public said that 34% disapproved how the Tennessee Legislature was doing while 23% approved.
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Jon Styf is an award-winning editor and reporter of The Center Square who has worked in Illinois, Texas, Wisconsin, Florida and Michigan in local newsrooms over the past 20 years, working for Shaw Media, Hearst and several other companies.
Photo “Frustrated Worker” by LaurMG.CC BY-SA 3.0.
I would suggest that many educators are better off financially in spite of inflation. $8K in unwarranted pay increases in Sumner County is a hunk of money. And what about all of those contractors and school admins who got big chunks of the COVID “relief” funds? There were some big winners and a lot of losers such as myself.