Three different new polls offer an independent confirmation of voter dissatisfaction with the government in Albany. A Marist poll of 707 New York registered voters found only 43% of voters think the state is headed in the right direction. A poll of 1,200 likely New York voters by Strategic Vision LLC found that only 37% said the state was headed in the right direction, with 55% saying “wrong direction” and the rest undecided. Finally, a poll of 600 likely voters statewide by McLaughlin & Associates for New Yorkers for Term Limits found 51% answered “wrong track” and only 35% “right direction” when asked about where the state was headed.

The New Yorkers for Term Limits poll, whose results are reported today on page one by our Julia Levy, was the only one to suggest why New Yorkers are so dissatisfied with Albany and what might come of it. Of respondents, 19% said taxes were the most important issue facing the state, with an additional 4% naming the property tax. That makes taxes the top issue among those asked about, which included education and jobs. A total of 66% of respondents said they agreed that “the New York State government in Albany is too corrupt and controlled by special interests.”

“Placing term limits on members of the State Legislature and the Governor, so that they can not serve any longer than eight consecutive years in the same office” was supported by 77% of respondents in the New Yorkers for Term Limits poll, and 72% said they supported “Amending the New York State Constitution to limit the amount that state taxes can be increased and to limit annual state spending increases.” The results will be met with disparagement by many, who will suggest that term limits just aren’t going to happen in New York. The point to remember when you hear such talk is that change always starts on the margin.

As the governor’s race in 2006 gets under way, with William Weld, Thomas Golisano, Randy Daniels, John Faso, and others eying the Republican nomination and Eliot Spitzer and Thomas Suozzi hoping to win the Democratic nomination, making these ideas part of the conversation can only be helpful. It’s not that term limits are some kind of panacea – they haven’t yet succeeded in turning the New York City Council into a responsible body. But support for them and for limits on taxation will be measures of how seriously the candidates are in taking on the special-interest driven tax and spend culture of Albany that, despite the best efforts of the incumbent politicians to conceal it, has so dismayed so many New Yorkers.