Opinion
Cieslewicz bling to progressive realities
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Last week, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz spoke on campus during a “State of the City” event. He touched on several issues during his address, and in summary proudly concluded that Madison has become one of the most “progressive” cities in the nation under his leadership.
In his address, Cieslewicz pointed to ordinances forcing an increase in the city minimum wage, inclusionary zoning and an indoor smoking ban to illustrate Madison’s “progressive” nature. Although these ideas sharply regress from the free-market principles on which the United States was founded, the mayor and other leftists have successfully managed to change the language from “leftist” to “progressive.” In his speech last week, Cieslewicz also attempted to sell his audience on the idea that government can tax and regulate into utopia without negative impacts on the private sector.
In arguing his point, Cieslewicz cited the “Best Places for Business and Careers” survey published last year in Forbes magazine that ranked Madison first. In order to properly digest the results of this survey, one should fully examine the criteria and reasons listed in ranking each metropolitan area. The criteria heavily weighed qualifications of the work force, including concentration of college graduates and Ph.D.s in the area. It also weighed local crime rates, income growth and even a “culture and leisure” index. The business-cost index was just one of several factors included in the survey.
Unsurprisingly, with the presence of a large university and many state government offices, Madison scores highly in work-force qualifications and income growth. In stagnant economies, government and university operations often remain unaffected, and the top four metro areas in the Forbes survey (Madison; Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; Austin, Texas; and Washington, D.C.-Northern Virginia) all contain a significant presence of public-sector employment.
One has to drop down to Atlanta, Ga., occupying fifth place, to find a large metro area noted for low business costs. Of the metro areas listed in the survey, only Richmond, Va. (10th place), scores in the top half for each of the criteria examined.
The same Forbes survey published in the previous year (2003) used slightly different criteria and ranked each metro area numerically by the cost-of-doing-business index, housing-affordability index, educational attainment, advanced degrees and crime rate. Madison ranked first in advanced degrees and third in educational attainment, while finishing 70th in the cost-of-doing-business index and 100th in the housing-affordability index.
Put simply, each metro area has its ups and downs, and Cieslewicz cannot claim the survey as a broad endorsement of his leftist agenda. It just happens that the university and state government provide an exceptionally stabilizing force to the local economy, independent of city regulations.
Patterns in other metro areas without the luxury of significant public-sector employment provide evidence that businesses do indeed respond to high taxes and regulations. For example, consider Chicago. Over several years, businesses have slowly left The Loop and relocated to area suburbs. An article titled “Corporate Migration” in the April 2000 issue of Illinois Issues magazine chronicled some of the more significant departures. In perhaps the most notable example of the past 20 years, Sears moved out of the familiar Sears Tower to a new office park in the northwestern suburb of Hoffman Estates, citing financial incentives and millions of dollars in property-tax savings.
Recent voting patterns in southeastern Wisconsin seem to suggest that voters have begun to respond to the impacts of high property taxes and small-business regulation. Last year, Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker won re-election in a landslide after freezing property taxes and promising more of the same. In the previous year, Mark Honadel won the 21st Assembly seat decisively after emphasizing property-tax relief in his campaign. He became the first Republican elected from that district in 75 years.
In many cases, ideas prevalent in Madison stand in sharp contrast to those found elsewhere, as the university has a way of sheltering the city from reality. Taxes, government regulation and Mayor Cieslewicz’s “progressive” agenda are no exceptions.
Mark A. Baumgardner (mbaumgardner@wisc.edu) is a senior majoring in electrical engineering.
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"Bling"? You must be kidding. While I can only hope you listen to the Cash Money Millionaires, I doubt it is the case. Please never type those words again Mark. What does the title even mean?
What do patterns in other metro areas have to do with Madison? If the people of Madison are so "out of touch" with the rest of the world, doesn't it make sense that they'd elect leaders who are also "out of touch" with the rest of the world, but supportive of the policies they believe in?
Does Mark even get to choose the headlines for his article? "Bling" doesn't appear anywhere in the text.
I wonder if that is a type and supposed to read "Cieslewicz blind to progressive realities." The first time I read it, i didnt notice bling, i read blind.
Considering that you have been on campus for over half a decade, don't you think it is time to graduate Mark and enter the real world you know so much about?
What the hizzle, my nizzle? That bling is the shiznit!
Guzizza, my dilznufus!
if the leftists have turned "left" into progressive, who can I speak to about the right turning "liberal" into "anti-american." Somewhere along the way you guys have decided that not hating different things and having different opinions than you own qualifies as unpatriotic and wrong. Even your president used the term 'mass. liberal' as an insult against john kerry. so do you think that liberals are out of touch with reality, or that conservatives are just out of touch with half of the country?
Actually, liberals have attempted to turn "liberal" into "anti-american". Rare is the conservative who uses "anti-american" or "unpatriotic" to describe anyone. Ubiquitous is the liberal ascribing the accusations to an unnamed conservative.
If the Massachusetts liberals from this election were any indication, they are the ones out of touch. The couldn't order food at a Wendy's, got "Lambeau" wrong, waved corn cobs at Iowa folks in an attempt to relate, mixed up Ohio and Michigan's colleges, and had absolutely no idea where middle America stood on gay marriage. Thank goodness they didn't attempt to attend a Nascar event.
I have to admit I was scratching my head when I read the headline on my own column this morning, and after I saw the title "Cieslewicz blind to progressive realities" in the print edition, I understood what happened. Columnists at The Badger Herald do not write their own headlines; that is the responsibility of the editors.
Also, I'm not sure how writing a column in The Badger Herald makes my academic record open for public scrutiny, but let me add some context to both my columns and my length of time here at Madison.
This is my ninth and final semester on campus taking classes. Many engineering students spend four and a half years on campus or even more in completing their degree, so this is not atypical. Since I have been working toward my degree, I have also spent three additional semesters away from campus, working in industry to earn money for my college expenses and to gain experience. I have seen first hand the negative impacts of taxes and regulations, and it is from that background, I write many of my columns. I have found these semesters away from campus extremely valuable in many ways, and I strongly encourage any students who have such an opportunity to take it.
"Rare is the conservative who uses "anti-american" or "unpatriotic" to describe anyone."
Are you serious?
Don't you remember when Congressman Wilson from S.C. went into an rage-filled rant calling congressman Filner from CA anti-American, among other things.
Conservatives were the first to start calling people anti-american after 9-11 to scare people from opposing them.
"Rare" does not equal "never". You cite one example, then jump back to nameless "conservatives".
The charge seems quite overhyped, that's all I'm saying.
Nameless conservatives? I'll give you a few names:
Ann Coulter.
Bill O'Reilly.
Bill Frist.
Tim Michels.
Dave Mangum.
The entire Sinclair Broadcasting Group.
I can keep going if you like...
Suprised you didn't say Rush...wow
Quick question:
Please define "Guzizza" and "dilznufus".
"Suprised you didn't say Rush...wow"
I did say I could keep going. Shall I?
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A shout-out to my homie Mark B. Keep blingin' shaw-day.
-B.G.
Well, Mark, there are plenty of low-tax, low-regulation, low-service places around this great land. So why aren't you in Alabama, Mississisppi or Wyoming? Why end up someplace like "left-wing Madison" so you can bitch about it?
Let's face it...the places that adhere most fervently to your philosophy are invariably shit. (You can prove me wrong by moving to one of your deregulatory paradises immediately.) And those notorious havens of leftism are the places that are actually worth living in.
As for your efforts to debunk the Forbes survey, that is some weak tea. There are HUNDREDS of major universities located in major cities....so why is it that supposedly "anti-business" Madison ended up at the top of the heap, instead of, say, low-taxin' Columbia SC with ITS state university?
Dude's a shitty writer and WAY overuses scare quotes.
"Progressive" etc.....
I can name a lot of good places to live that are low-regulation. They are invariably the places that are pro-economic growth and the ones with growing middle class and professional populations like Peoria, Illinois and any other place without oppressive income taxes.