New Yorkers by a margin of more than two-to-one said they aren’t getting their money’s worth from taxes they pay in the state, according to recent polling by the Empire Center for Public Policy in Albany. 

Asked “do you feel you are getting your money’s worth for the taxes you pay in New York,” a large majority (59 percent) said no, compared with 24 percent for yes. Eighteen percent were undecided. 

The survey of 1,021 New York registered voters (margin of error: 3 percent) was conducted by Morning Consult in mid-December. The toplines and crosstabs can be viewed here. 

Other notable findings included: 

• Nearly half of public school parents (45 percent) said they had encountered a teacher at their child’s current school who “should have been dismissed for poor performance or misconduct.”
• A plurality of all New Yorkers (41 percent) said the governor should be allowed to hire and fire the education commissioner, who is appointed by the Board of Regents, whose members are selected by the state Legislature. 
• Told “if money wasn’t an issue” with how their child gets their education, and given a list of choices, only 30 percent of public school parents said they would send their children to “your neighborhood public school.” The other options selected were: 
  • “a private, non-religious school” (29 percent)
  • “a private, religious school” (15 percent) 
  • “a charter school” (12 percent)

Nine percent of parents said they would homeschool their child, and five percent were unsure. 

• Most New Yorkers (59 percent) said the state’s greenhouse gas-reduction strategies should not increase the price of energy, even if that slows progress toward reducing emissions. The remaining voters were evenly split between Albany doing “everything it can to reduce greenhouse gas emissions faster, even if it means higher energy prices for customers” and doing “everything it can to reduce the price of energy” even if it means higher greenhouse gas emissions (20 percent each). 

The Empire Center, based in Albany, is an independent, not-for-profit, non-partisan think tank dedicated to promoting policies that can make New York a better place to live, work and raise a family.