BATON ROUGE, La. -- After three months in office, Gov. Bobby Jindal's approval ratings top 77 percent, according to a new poll released Tuesday, with a majority of those surveyed saying they trusted the governor to spend their tax dollars wisely.

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Gov. Bobby Jindal. (File Photo)

Nearly half the respondents in the Southern Media & Opinion Research poll said their impression of Jindal was "very favorable," numbers that pollster Bernie Pinsonat said he's never seen so high for a governor just starting in office.

"These are stratospheric numbers," Pinsonat said.

He said former Gov. Mike Foster had similar high approval ratings in polls, but after four years in office. Fewer than 7 percent of respondents in the poll gave Jindal a poor rating, with the rest refusing to answer or saying they didn't know.

Jindal, a Republican, took office in January. His popularity, according to the poll, spanned political parties. Nearly three-quarters of the Democrats polled gave Jindal favorable marks, along with 90 percent of the Republicans surveyed.

Pinsonat said the governor's challenge will involve maintaining such high approval ratings over the life of his term -- particularly because the voters surveyed for the poll gave dismal marks to state government spending and performance.

Nearly 71 percent of those surveyed said they don't believe that state government spends tax money wisely, but just as many respondents said they had trust in the Jindal administration to spend the cash well.

Jindal will have to prove he can do better than voters view the performance of previous government officials and people will have to see improvements in roads, schools and health care for the governor to keep his approval ratings high, Pinsonat said.

"The high numbers are wonderful, but it means high expectations," the pollster said. "He said he can do these things, the public bought into that, and now he's got to deliver."

The telephone survey, of 600 likely Louisiana voters, was conducted from March 26 through April 9 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. Pinsonat said the questions were added to an education and utility issues poll paid for by private groups who weren't connected to a specific candidate or party.

In other areas:

--61 percent of those surveyed said they think a package of new ethics laws passed by lawmakers in a special legislative session called by Jindal in February would make Louisiana public officials more ethical.

--58 percent of respondents said they don't think Louisiana colleges are justified in raising football ticket prices.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)