Poll Indicates Montana Will Likely Pass 6-Mill Levy, Though Nearly Half Don’t Know What it is
Montana ballot issues don’t get a lot of polling usually, but the Big Sky Poll run by the University of Montana recently released some new polling on the 6-Mill Levy, which voters will decide this November. According to poll co-director Sarah Rinfret, the pollsters questioned 618 registered voters at the end of august and found that a good portion of Montana voters have no idea what the six mill levy is.
"The first question that we asked is, whether or not, folks were familiar with the referendum, and 46 percent of Montanans were not familiar with it," Rinfret said. "We read the actual ballot language and then whether or not folks would vote for or against the 6-Mill-Levy and 71 percent said they would vote for it."
Very few of those who said that they were voting for the 6-mill-levy appear to be questioning their vote, but that’s not true for those who opposed it.
"When we pushed them, and asked 'are you sure about your vote', within that 71 percent supporting the 6-Mill-Levy, 19 percent said that they might change their vote," Rinfret said. "21 percent said that they would vote against the 6-Mill Levy, and 35 percent of them said they might change their vote. Then we had 8 percent that were undecided."
The 6-mill levy is up for renewal every ten years and has been approved every decade since 1948. If approved again, it will collect about 20 million dollars per year from property taxes, which will then be spent on Montana University System institutions, including the University of Montana.