WILTON — When approximately 1,270 Wilton residents voted last week, 330 took a penny poll, according to Eileen Liddy, who conducted the poll..

Penny polls held in 11 towns and cities on Election Day indicated voters want more of their tax dollars to go for social programs and much less for defense.

Organizers of the polls, representing the Bring Our War $$ Home campaign, wanted to see if most voters and taxpayers wanted less of their taxes going to defense and military purposes and more for social programs.

Participants were given 10 pennies, each representing 10 percent of the income taxes they pay to the federal government. They were asked to put pennies in jars, representing the largest parts of the federal discretionary budget, where they wanted their tax dollars to be spent.

The biggest vote getter in the poll was education, garnering 19.5 percent of all pennies, followed closely by health care, with 17.5 percent. Next were veterans benefits, with 13.2 percent; food/agriculture at 9.8 percent; environment/science at 9.3 percent; transportation at 7.7 percent. The rest were interest on the national debt at 7.5 percent; defense at 6.5 percent; housing/urban development at 6.4 percent; and general government at 2.7 percent.

In general, most Wilton voters agreed with the above results, except they ranked interest on the national debt fourth, followed by food/agriculture at 10.3 percent, transportation at 7.4 percent, environment/science at 6.8 percent, defense at 6.8 percent, housing/urban development at 5.2 percent,  and general government at 1.4 percent.

A 2010 estimate of these same categories by the National Priorities Project found that the defense portion was 58 percent of the discretionary budget, about nine times what penny poll participants wanted to spend. Categories where voters wanted much greater spending included education, health care, veterans benefits, and food/agriculture.

A previous series of polls was held in late spring and summer in each Maine county. More than 1,500 people participated and those results were within 2 percent of those from Election Day.

By far the biggest difference between what Maine voters want and how Congress spends taxpayer money is between the actual defense budget, which is about half of the federal discretionary budget, and its polling support of less than 20 percent. Education, health care, environment/science, and food/agriculture were all much more popular in Maine than the amount they actually receive from Congress.

“Congress is out of touch with the priorities of most people in this country,” said Lisa Savage of Solon, who conducted one of the polls. 

Other municipalities were Lewiston, Portland, Bowdoinham, Belgrade, Skowhegan, Belfast, Monroe, Old Town, Orland and Southwest Harbor. About 2,075 voters participated in the polls.

For more information on these polls, contact Larry Dansinger, 525-7776, [email protected] or Lisa Savage, 399-7623, Eileen Liddy, 645-4755.