Leaders with the Detroit Regional Chamber are mystified by a new poll The Detroit News claims “points to a disconnect between reality and what most voters perceive to be the truth.”

The poll of 600 registered Michigan voters conducted May 1-5 by the Glengariff Group found “61% of respondents view the economy as weakening or in a recession, even though gross domestic product, or the nation’s economic output, grew 3.4% in the last quarter of 2023, the stock market is up and Michigan unemployment remains low at 3.9%,” according to The News.

The poll, intended to inform the Chamber’s Mackinac Policy Conference this week, also found 37% of respondents believe inflation is above 6%, while the official figure for April was 3.4%.

“It’s very hard to rationalize why the level of consumer confidence in the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Survey is lower today than it was during the Great Recession of 13 years ago,” Chamber CEO Sandy Baruah told The News. “Very hard to understand.”

Baruah, who took home $655,035 in total compensation in 2021, speculated some folks may buy more of things that aren’t included in the core inflation rate, such as gas and groceries.

According to a “Chamber Perspective” analysis of the results: “The misguided perceptions illustrated in this data are harmful to the state’s economic progress, especially as the state faces population stagnation and ongoing challenges to its competitiveness position.”

The Chamber points to responses that show only 4% are concerned about losing their job, though most believe the state’s economy is not great.

Following check-in, be sure to visit the @cfcreditunion café for complimentary champagne and chocolate until 5 p.m. today.
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— Detroit Regional Chamber (@DetroitChamber) May 28, 2024

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“This is one of these rare moments, where Michiganders are not concerned about losing their job,” Richard Czuba, president of The Glegariff Group, told The News. “And yet, by a margin of 39% to 52%, voters said the state’s economy is on the wrong track.”

“While voters’ sour mood about the overall economic conditions is no doubt related to the run-up in prices in 2022 and 2023, the lack of acknowledgement of overall positive economic conditions – including moderating inflation – today is troubling and makes it more difficult for public policy and business leaders to plan for the future, including making investment decisions,” according to the Chamber Perspective.

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As chamber officials and policy wonks fret over the future and “making investment decisions,” most Michiganders are focused less on the New York Stock Exchange than struggling to cover the basic necessitates for their families.

Some of their biggest expenses, such as energy, food, gas, and housing, all of which have increased dramatically since the pandemic, are conveniently omitted from the core price index typically cited by the media and politicians.

Figures from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis shows the cost of food at the grocery store increased 24.7% between March 2020 and March 2024, with grocery bills in 37 states now topping $250 per week on average, The Iosco News reports.

Basics like eggs are up 50%, while beef roasts, flour, carbonated beverages, canned fruits and vegetables, and sugar are all up by over a third.

A January analysis by Rent.com found Michigan is also home to some of the highest increases in rent prices in the country, jumping 12.47% in just the last year. MLive notes that between January 2020 and February 2024, the average rent in Michigan went from $1,100 to more than $1,500, with no relief in sight.

“We won’t see too much of a decrease in rent prices,” Kate Terhune, Rent’s director of brand, told the news site. “This is sort of the new normal.”

It’s a similar situation for home owners, according to the University of Michigan.

“In 2022, 51% of renters were housing-cost burdened, or spending more than 30% of income on housing. This includes 25% of renters who were severely housing-cost burdened, or spending more than half of income on housing,” a May report read. “Among homeowners, 24% with mortgages and 14% without mortgages are housing cost-burdened.”

Other expenses putting a pinch on Michiganders includes gasoline, which hit a 2024 high in April of $3.72 a gallon, base interest rates that have increased from near zero before the pandemic to 5.5%, new vehicle prices that have jumped 27% since 2018, record-high credit card interest, and medical debt tied to skyrocketing health care costs.

The so-called disconnect in the Chamber survey also extends to how voters view democracy and election integrity, with 68% of respondents dissatisfied with the condition of American democracy. Another roughly 40% said they do not believe their vote is counted accurately, or that it counts the same as everyone else’s vote.

“One thing we’re seeing not just in this survey but in a multitude of surveys is voters no longer can agree on some basic facts. We are in this era of misinformation,” Czuba told The News. “And because we can’t agree on facts, they can’t analyze the basic fundamentals of what they’re seeing in front of them.”

One fact that all Michiganders can agree on: Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson has repeatedly and illegally manipulated election rules on absentee ballots and other issues, only to have the courts overturn the changes after voters cast their ballots.

That rodeo is playing out again in 2024, with Republicans suing Benson over efforts to circumvent the law that regulates how her office adopts election rules.

“Michigan’s state constitution is very clear: election officials have to verify the identity of voters casting absentee ballots,” RNC Chairman Michael Whatley said when he announced another lawsuit in March. “Jocelyn Benson is yet again working to undermine election integrity by secretly instructing officials to disregard and circumvent these clear requirements.

“The RNC is suing Benson because Michiganders deserve election integrity, not underhanded Democrat schemes,” he said.