H 84°, L 63° | Tomorrow: 
H 81°, L 63°I read Mark Baumgardner’s recent column regarding my talk to the Associated Students of Madison and I wanted to respond briefly. Mark is right when he says that my goal is to make Madison the most progressive, most liberal city in the nation. That’s because liberal policies work.
Of course it’s true that the presence of the university and state government have bolstered our local economy. But in recent years those have not been growing institutions. State government employment has been stagnant for years and Gov. Jim Doyle would cut it by another 10,000 workers. In the last state budget, the University of Wisconsin took a quarter-of-a-billion-dollar budget cut. Still, Madison has among the lowest unemployment rates in the nation. The growth in Madison’s economy has come largely from the private sector.
The reason is that we have two things that business wants more than low taxes: an educated workforce and a high quality of life. Communities cannot have either by pursuing a race to the bottom, slashing taxes and services and gutting regulations that protect workers and the environment.
Liberal policies are pro-economic development. They have served us well for three decades.
Mayor
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Well said, Mayor Dave. You forgot to mention the WORKER SHORTAGE that studies are predicting we’ll have - raising the minimum wage and building more affordable housing will help bring more people into our workforce to address that shortage. You are awesome for doing those things and sticking up for progressive values.
By the way, Baumgardner is a knee-jerk conservative who was kicked off of ASM for malicious violation of viewpoint neutrality. And, as he posted recently, he’ll be leaving soon anyway.
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Personally, I find it a bit disturbing that the mayor would take time out to respond to a student newspaper. Of course, maybe it is a good thing… since he will have to stop doing other work for awhile.
Take away the university and your downtown turns into a pile of crap… much like the east side already is. All you would have left is the west side and its suburbs that are decent. Maybe we should tax them more and redistribute the wealth. Yeay commun… i mean liberal policies.
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“Personally, I find it a bit disturbing that the mayor would take time out to respond to a student newspaper.”
He probably has a staff member who is responsible for keeping track of students’ interests. Part of that would include reading our newspapers and informing the mayor if there is anything he should see.
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I’m glad we have a mayor who is concerned with protecting both our local economy and the environment. That is hard to come by in today’s political climate…I for one would like a job AND clean air and water, thank you.
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Hippies don’t file for unemployment because they’re never employed in the first place.
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Mostly only hippies go to farmer’s markets…. mostly.
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“Take away the university and your downtown turns into a pile of crap… much like the east side already is.”
The east side of Madison is still a lot better than any part of most cities of its size.
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The University helps the economy grow even when the University population is not growing. Companies that originate from the University do grow, even when the university does not. It’s not clear that Mayor Dave understands that basic point. But he is a Madison “progressive”, so his good intentions must always be more important than whether he understands the first thing about economics.
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Yeah, the mayor having interest in students is really a cause for alarm. Riiiiiiight.
Thanks, Mayor Dave!
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Liberal policies work with respect to economic growth… that has to be the most ill-informed comment i’ve ever heard.
Lets take a look at the bastions of liberalism that are France and Germany. Both countries currently have an unemployment rate of over 10 percent with GDP growth in the neighborhood of 2 percent. Ah yes, the robust economic stimulus of punitive taxation and redistribution.
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“Lets take a look at the bastions of liberalism that are France and Germany. Both countries currently have an unemployment rate of over 10 percent with GDP growth in the neighborhood of 2 percent. Ah yes, the robust economic stimulus of punitive taxation and redistribution.”
Now let’s take a look at Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland. Those four countries are practically communist, with even more punitive taxation and redistribution than France and Germany. But their economies are doing just fine, their unemployment rates are low, their children are better educated than American children, their people are healthier than the people of nearly any other nation in the world, and their quality of life is among the highest in the world.
And conservative policies don’t necessary do so well. Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Congo are all very conservative economically, but you’d have to be blind to think their economies are doing well, other than for their wealthiest people.
I guess liberalism might not be so bad after all.
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Job shortage in the Madison area? Could it have anything to do with the fact that Wisconsin residents are taxed third highest in the Union? Typically high taxes do not attract new jobs.