Clean Water Advocacy - Newsroom - AMSA in the News
GOP POLLSTER SHOWS BROAD BACKING FOR LONG-TERM WATER FUNDING
Date: May 23, 2003 -
Polling by a key GOP analyst shows broad public support for
creating a federal
water infrastructure trust fund, and wastewater officials are promoting the
results as part of a multi-tiered strategy to push pending wastewater funding
bills while building support for the more ambitious trust fund goal.
On May 20, pollster Frank Luntz released a survey commissioned by the
Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies (AMSA) that shows 70 percent of
people polled would support a one percent tax increase if the money were spent
on water infrastructure, while 84 percent would back legislation to create a
trust fund. The poll is available on InsideEPA.com.
“Every demographic expressed support, even at a personal cost,” Luntz told
Inside EPA, while also noting at a May 20 briefing that “Even among Republicans
there is better than 2-1 support even when they know there is going to be a tax
increase.”
The poll is part of an ongoing effort by AMSA to build political support for a
long-term infrastructure trust fund to meet financial needs for drinking and
wastewater infrastructure funding needs estimated by federal and private
studies at billions of dollars annually if revenues do not grow.
Funding advocates appear to be eyeing a two-tiered plan that involves using the
poll results to push for existing shorter-term funding legislation now before
Congress. They will also make a slower push toward the vastly more ambitious
goal of having Congress authorize a trust fund that would create an as-yet-
unidentified revenue stream akin to using gasoline taxes to fund highways.
Material prepared for an AMSA conference in Washington, DC this week promotes
the bills by touting Luntz's survey data showing that a significant majority of
people polled would be more likely to vote for members of Congress who back a
trust fund.
AMSA sources say creating a trust fund would represent a significant win for
the Bush administration because wastewater funding is portrayed as
environmentally beneficial, while creating new jobs. “This [poll] has got to
put the issue on the administration's priority list,” says an AMSA source, who
expressed hope that Luntz's credibility in GOP circles would help win backing
for the idea.
In the shorter term, the group is lobbying for passage of two pieces of House
legislation creating five-year $20 and $25 million authorizations,
respectively, for wastewater infrastructure funding. “In the short term you go
for the authorization and appropriation,” says one wastewater source. “You
build on that to get to the trust fund.”
However, getting a trust fund will likely depend on what sources of revenue the
group identifies as viable. “The key for us and the key for anybody is where
the money is going to come from,” says an official with a drinking water
association.
The Luntz poll also showed that 51 percent of people polled, when asked what
type of infrastructure is most worthy of a federal trust fund, listed water
infrastructure, compared to 23 percent for roads and highways and four percent
for airports and aviation.
Luntz said the issue showed an uncommonly high level of support. Luntz conducts
about 50 surveys a year and “this would be number one out of 50 in terms of the
clarity of public opinion. There is no compromise,” he said.
A 2002 EPA study showed that absent any revenue growth, the clean water funding
gap could exceed $270 billion over 20 years.