A majority of Illinois voters do not believe the state is headed in the right direction.
That's according to a new poll from the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute.
When 1,000 voters were asked if they believe Illinois is on the "right track," 84 percent of them answered "no."
That comes as Illinois is in the midst of a historic budget impasse, which may have affected voters' opinion of Gov. Bruce Rauner.
Half of those polled say the Republican chief executive is not doing a good job; 41-percent approve of Rauner's leadership. Both his approval and disapproval ratings are up from last year.
Rauner’s rating is negative in every region of the state, particularly Chicago, where he gets 58 percent disapproval to 34 percent approval. But the spread is much narrower elsewhere, 47 percent to 43 percent in the suburbs and 49 percent to 43 percent downstate.
But the numbers are more negative than this time last year, when 37 percent of those surveyed by the institute approved of the new governor’s performance, to 31 percent disapproving.
One reason Rauner’s numbers may not be worse is that, by a 62-32 margin, most of those surveyed say neither they nor someone in their immediate family have been hurt by the budget stalemate.
- Illinois Public Radio Statehouse Bureau Chief Amanda Vinicky contributed to this report.