The latest University of Texas/Texas Politics Project Poll found a striking degree of aggregate, bi-partisan support for the more fundamental policy proposals that are currently mired in various parts of the legislative process. Texas voters expressed their strongest and most widespread support for legislative action in response to problems that have affected many Texans’ daily lives in recent years: reliable power in their homes and businesses, access to clean water, the safety of students and teachers in Texas schools, and relief from property taxes driven up by steep, consistent growth in real estate values.

The latest University of Texas/Texas Politics Project Poll finds large majorities of Texans saying that it’s important for the legislature to improve the reliability of the state’s energy grid and water supply while reducing property taxes – even as disagreements among the state’s Republican leadership about how to accomplish some of these goals, particularly property tax reduction, but also grid reliability, continue to boil over in public.

The poll reveals much less agreement and more partisan division in opinions about what the legislature needs to accomplish, and in response to specific policy proposals, especially on social and cultural issues that continue to roil politics across the nation, including abortion, transgender rights, and education.

Political chatter about a grassroots uprising against the water funding measure on the November ballot appears to be overblown. Polling indicates a fair amount of Tea Party support for that constitutional amendment.

Texas voter turnout is low, but for constitutional amendments like the one next month, turnout is often very, very low. So how do you figure out which poll respondents deserve your attention?

The rough seas that sank the Texas House's attempt to fund the state water plan on Monday night with a $2 billion draw on the Rainy Day Fund highlighted the limits of consensus on both how to pay for water development and whether it's a top priority. 

Despite water’s saturation of the political priority list, the public still appears ambivalent about Texas’ water needs and out of step with state legislators on how to pay for it, according to the latest UT/Texas Tribune Poll.

Water has emerged as the top infrastructure issue before the 83rd Legislature — an issue that appears to be more important to lawmakers than to most of the people they represent.