Poll Illustrates Spending Preferences

The poll was run by the Orange County Peace Coalition in front of the Franklin Street post office.

The Peace Coalition is made up of 11 groups, including UNC's Students United for a Responsible Global Environment and Campaign to End the Cycle of Violence.

The poll was taken from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. to survey residents' ideas about how tax dollars should be spent.

Passers-by were given 10 pennies to place in seven different jars that were labeled education, military, transportation, healthcare, housing, environment and other to show where they wanted the federal government to spend tax money.

After about 480 people cast their "votes" and the results were tallied, the percentages mirrored those of last year's poll.

This year, people said they wanted the most money to be spent on education. The second spending priority was health care and the environment was third.

Military spending came in fifth and got only 9 percent of the vote, compared with 10 percent last year.

"People thought there might be a huge difference (in military spending votes) because we're at war on terrorism," said Margaret Misch, co-chairwoman of the peace coalition. "But it didn't turn out that people put more money in the military jar than last year.

"People seem to be consistently concerned about education and housing and feel the funding for the military is enough."

Last year about 350 people voted in the poll and showed they thought education spending was most important by giving it 30 percent of the vote as compared to the 29 percent it got this year.

Environmental spending came in second last year and military spending came in fourth.

"I think there is a lot of talk about education, but you think if they really cared, they'd pay more," said James Gadson, a recently retired UNC professor who taught in the Department of Art. "In some cultures teachers are revered, in this one you basically baby-sit."

But Rob Girardi, a junior business major from Charlotte, joked that he was going to drop all his pennies in the military jar.

"If it was my taxes, I wouldn't do it, but I'll do it here just for fun," he said.

Durba Chattaraj, a senior economics major from Raleigh, dropped her pennies into the healthcare, environment and education jars.

"I believe the responsibility of the government is to take care of the needs of its citizens," she said. "To invest in war and military will make the world a more unsafe place."

After residents voted, one of the coalition members informed the voters how their tax money was actually spent.

"This is an educational project every year," Misch said. "We consider this an educational undertaking to tell them where their tax dollars are spent. This is to give the tax payers a voice in how they would like to see their money go."

The City Editor can be reached at citydesk@unc.edu.