According to the Lee Poll released over the weekend, 55% of respondents thought that Gov. Schweitzer's $400/household tax refund was "sufficient" and only 33% thought the state should have refunded more.  Based on that result, it could be said that a majority of Montana's supported Schweitzer's one-time tax rebate over the alternate Republican proposal to permanently reduce property tax rates.

We have here an example of how a poll question can be worded to produce a desired result.  Lee didn't give the exact wording of their question, but based on news accounts, we can guess that it went something like: "Do you think the $400 property tax rebate was sufficient, or should have been larger?"

Rewind to January when the Montana Chamber of Commerce released the results of a poll with a similar question.  However, the Chamber's poll question asked for a preference between a $400 rebate and permanent property tax relief; 75% of respondents said they'd prefer the permanent relief.

The Lee poll also indicated that 63% of respondents approved the largest ever budget increases pushed through by Democrats.  January's Chamber poll had the opposite, respondents preferred tax relief over new spending by a 70% to 16% margin.  The difference in this question was that Lee simply asked whether respondents approved of the spending increases, and the Chamber's question gave respondents a choice between tax relief and spending.

Pollsters found 63 percent approved of the Legislature having allocated nearly three-fourths of the state's projected, $1 billion surplus to public schools, prisons, human services, state colleges and buildings. Twenty-six percent said more of the surplus should have been returned to taxpayers. Eleven percent were undecided.

It just goes to show how similar questions can get opposing results just in the way the questions are asked.