Poll: Arkansans think economy headed wrong way

Most Arkansans are skeptical of where the economy is heading and disapprove of steps President Obama has taken to try and turn things around, according to a new poll.
Results of the poll commissioned by the Arkansas News Bureau/Stephens Media showed 54 percent of respondents said they felt the economy is on the wrong track, 27 percent said they thought it was on the right track and 19 percent said they were not sure.
Asked how they felt about President Obama’s actions to stabilize the economy, 37 percent said they thought the president had caused more harm than good, 29 percent said the measures had little effect, 28 percent said they had improved the economic conditions and 6 percent were not sure.
“They don’t think the plan is working, it’s not on track,” said J. Brad Coker, managing partner of Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc., the company that conducted the poll.
“Only a very small number think Obama’s stimulus plan has improved the economy,” he said, referring to the president’s $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which was signed into law to stimulate the economy during the recession.
Arkansas was allotted $2.9 billion, including $351 million for highway projects.
“People aren’t happy,” Coker said, adding the federal government “has spent a lot of money but nothing has turned around.”
Washington, D.C.-based Mason-Dixon surveyed 625 registered voters statewide by telephone Monday through Wednesday. The poll’s margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.
Greg Hamilton, an economist with the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, noted that within the poll results on how voters feel about the president’s plan to stabilize the economy fall within the margin of error, meaning voters are divided.
“They’re overlapping, it’s pretty uniform distribution,” Hamilton said. “It’s really a mixed bag. What they are saying is they don’t know.”
Hamilton said political ill will toward Obama, not concerns about the economy, also may color how voters feel.
Greg Kaza, executive director of the Arkansas Policy Foundation, said unemployment is the key, and when voters see the job numbers improve they’ll start feeling like the economy is improving.
Arkansas’ unemployment rate rose three-tenths of a percentage point to 7.7 percent in December. The national jobless rate held steady at 10 percent.
“We believe the recession ended last June, but Arkansas’ economy lags the U.S., and it’s a jobless recovery to this point,” Kaza said.