I’ve received several reports from readers that the Peoria Riverfront Museum folks are conducting a poll:
It was automated about how I felt about the new museum. As soon as I answered “no” (by pressing 2) on if this project was worthy of Peoria, it hung up on me. –Emtronics
I just got the same phone call from “Susan Anderson” with the same result- hung up after pressing 2 for no. I had debated pressing 1, just to see if they asked any further questions TikTok for business. –Septboy
After listening to all the great things this museum will bring to Peoria my wife graciously pressed 1, which was ‘in support.’ We then were given three different taxing options. I waited to see if “press 4?” would be for none of the above. “Press 4” turned out to be “undecided OR none of the above.” Not, press 4 for undecided and press 5 for none of the above… We hung up. –PeoriaIllinoisan
One reader called it a “push poll.” According to Wikipedia, “In a push poll, large numbers of respondents are contacted, and little or no effort is made to collect and analyze response data. Instead, the push poll is a form of telemarketing-based propaganda … masquerading as a poll.”
Anyone else have an encounter with the museum poll that they’d like to add? Do you think it’s a legitimate attempt to gauge public opinion, or do you think it’s a push poll? I haven’t gotten the call. I’m sure my number has been specifically blacklisted. 😛
Hello CJ. I appreciate you and your readers taking an interest in the recent Riverfront Museum Survey. This survey was not conducted by “Museum folks,” but rather by Peoria County Government. Peoria County was approached last year to spend $24 million tax payer dollars to fund the museum project. The only way Peoria County may raise these proceeds is by creating a museum district funded by property taxes or to get legislative authorization for a sales tax. For either, we would need to ask the voters by including a referendum on the ballot.
We decided to take a proactive approach by asking voters before placing the referendum on the ballot. We are very much interested in the results because the results provide guidance for how we should proceed. By conducting this poll, our intention is not to generate more interest in the museum but rather to gauge how much interest our citizens currently have in spending $24 million of their collective dollars to support the museum.
In response to two of your readers’ comments regarding the abrupt conclusion to the survey should a respondent select “no” (or number 2) as to whether he or she feels the museum would be beneficial to the region, both the County Administrator and I approved the survey by taking it via phone several times ourselves. When a respondent selects “no,” the recording says “Thank you for your time. I appreciate your participation.” We believe if a citizen does not feel the museum is beneficial, he or she would not support a tax increase to fund the museum; therefore, by eliciting a negative reply, we had the information we needed from the respondent and did not want to unnecessarily take more of the individual’s time.
It was also respondents’ time that became the deciding factor as to whether we included “undecided” and “none of the above” in the same response. We did debate whether to offer these two replies together or separately, but when you take into consideration our citizens’ busy lifestyles and our appreciation for them taking time out of those schedules to reply to a phone survey, we did not desire to lengthen the survey unnecessarily.
Peoria County’s three possible options as far as tax increases to fund the museum are those we included in the survey: property tax increase for Peoria County property owners, regional property tax increase, or sales tax increase for Peoria County. On the advice of the survey administrator, the County Administrator and I agreed that if someone was “undecided” he or she would be more likely to vote against a tax increase (in any form) than for a tax increase were the question to appear on a ballot. Hence, more often than not, “undecided” would prove to be the same response as “none of the above” and would only serve to unnecessarily lengthen the survey if offered as a separate option. We also felt limiting the options to four rather than five was prudent considering the complexity of each option.
Again CJ, Peoria County Government does appreciate your interest in the Riverfront Museum survey. We value your input and that of your readers. Once we get and share the results with the County Board we will be more than happy to share those results with you. Please feel free to contact me regarding the survey: Jenny Zinkel, Director of Strategic Communications, jzinkel@peoriacounty.org. Thank you.
This is beyond insane! Are you kidding me?!?!? Is someone going to step forward and claim this *@#!* idea as their own? I have never seen the PUBLIC subjected to so much panhandling in my life. My question is why the delay??? Let the referendum go! Is the museum afraid of loosing any and every chance at outside funding if the people of Peo County vote no? Who will support it then…actually, who supports it now?
MUSEUM PEOPLE LISTEN UP. If this museum has a chance at all in happening you need to get out and start selling it to the average citizen. They don’t understand it and as a result will not support it. If you can get them to understand the concept and get them excited about it then they may support it but without that buy-in they will vote NO!
I feel that I have paid close attention to the progress of the museum and I still don’t quite understand what it is all about.
Another thing, you need to update your web-site. For a group asking people to donate thousands and millions your web-site is really lame and tells the viewer nothing about the proposed project other than a few pictures.