Survey: SJ Valley Residents Despondent Over Money

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) -- A new survey of San Joaquin Valley residents shows more people despondent over finances than they were 10 years ago. Their belief that government can help them also dropped dramatically.

   Results released Monday by the Social Research Laboratory at Fresno State University showed that nearly 43 percent of 600 respondents feel their financial situations are worsening in 2011. In 2006, only 14 percent of those surveyed felt that way.

   Valley residents' faith in federal and state government was half of what it was in 2001, the first year the survey was conducted. Only 17 percent said they thought the federal government was good at solving problems, a figure that dropped to 12 percent for the state.

   A synopsis of the survey called it the least optimistic in the project's decade-long history.

   (Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)