"Cut where the money is not, and spare where the money is."

That, Cal State Fullerton political science professor Keith Boyum said, is the bottom line of a poll released Thursday on the state budget deficit.

The poll of 465 Orange County residents found that the public strongly opposes cuts to elementary and high schools, where the state spends at least 40 percent of its money.

Respondents overwhelmingly favor cuts to the governor's office and executive branch, the Legislature and courts - together about 4 percent of the state general fund.

County residents are deadlocked over how to close the state's $12 billion deficit. Forty-three percent said they would prefer to solve the deficit mostly through spending cuts. A statistically identical 42 percent favored a mix of spending cuts and tax increases. The margin of error for the poll was 4.64 percent.

Prisons fared worst among the big-money programs. Nearly half of respondents favored some cuts and another quarter favored deep cuts. Boyum, director of the school's Center for Public Policy, said the public is probably reacting to news reports about prison scandals. Also, people may believe the state is spending too much on comfortable prison conditions.

There were a couple of surprises on the list of programs to be cut and spared, he said.

Community colleges fared slightly better than the University of California and the California State University systems. Just over half said no to spending cuts for the two- year schools. Community colleges have long protested that they are budgetary stepchildren, overshadowed by the UC and CSU systems.

Poll respondents generally were sympathetic to the poor and disabled. But there was one exception: A majority favored cutting aid to single mothers who were preparing to enter the work force.

Cal State Fullerton and the Orange County Business Council sponsored the poll, which was conducted from Feb. 4 to Feb. 22. Only English speakers were surveyed.