Poll: Californias' Personal Finances Stabilizing
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- A majority of Californians say their personal financial status is stabilizing compared to previous years, but fewer than half say the state remains "one of the best places to live," according to the results of a Field Poll released Friday.
In four successive Field Poll surveys between 2008 and 2010, majorities of Californians -- ranging from 52 percent to 63 percent -- reported declining personal finances.
In the most recent poll, half those who responded said there had been no change in their financial status, 12 percent said it had improved and 38 percent said their financial situation had declined.
The last time Field asked the question, in September, 52 percent said they were worse off.
About half said California's growing immigrant population has no real impact on the overall quality of life in the state, compared with about four in 10 who believe immigrants have reduced the state's quality of life. Ten percent say immigration has made it better.
Voters who have seen their personal financial fortunes fall in the past year are more likely to see recent immigration as having a negative effect, as are those over 40 years old and white, non-Hispanics, said Field Poll director Mark DiCamillo.
Californians' assessments of the quality of life in the nation's most populous state have waxed and waned since Field first began surveying opinions about it in 1967, he said.
In 1978, a record 78 percent said the state was one of the best places to live, but the number reached its lowest level yet in 1992, when California was in the midst of another deep recession. Just a third called it one of the best places to live at the time.
In the poll released Friday, 39 percent said California was one of the best places to live, 29 percent called the state "nice, but not outstanding," with 20 percent saying it was average. One in 10 voters said California was a poor place to live.
The poll surveyed 898 registered voters by telephone from Feb. 28 to March 14. It has a sampling error margin of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
