The Elway Poll, commonly regarded as authoritative in gauging public opinion in the State of Washington, found in a recent poll that Washington adults rate civil rights as a higher state and local government priority than transportation.  The question was, "What should state and local government priorities be, thinking about how you would like the state to be 20 years from now?"  16% ranked civil rights first and second, while 15% ranked transportation first and second.  Other rankings were as follows:

 

Education:  37%

Job/Economy:  34%

Health/Welfare: 34%

Protecting the environment:  28%

Public Safety: 20%

 

Elway notes that the high ranking for civil rights and the low ranking for transportation might be attributable to the idea that those polled expect transportation to be better in 20 years, and, by inference, don't expect civil rights to get better. 

 

(Source:  Nov/Dec 2005, "The Elway Poll")