You probably know Paul Soglin, if you know him at all, as the new mayor in town. He began his third non-consecutive stint as the mayor of Madison in April, narrowly defeating fellow Democrat Dave Cieslewicz.
Madisonians know Soglin as “the hippie mayor,” a title he earned in the 1960s, when he was arrested twice at the inaugural Mifflin Street Block Party. On the wave of his popularity as a central figure in the Madison anti-war movement, Soglin served as mayor from 1973 to 1979 and again from 1989 to 1997.
For some reason, the misconception of Soglin as some sort of beatnik, left-wing iconoclast has lived on some 40 years after his activist heyday. Looking at his track record as mayor, it is writ plain he is not the spendthrift liberal some seem to have expected. During his second term in office, he saw Madison’s bond rating lifted to AAA status by Moody’s, largely a product of the fiscally responsible budgets that he oversaw.
No surprises, then, that his proposed budget saw a rollback in spending. All told, the budget represents a drop in spending of more than $50 million, including the near scrapping of the Edgewater Hotel development plan, as well as drastic cuts to fleet transportation services and biking and pedestrian services. The new budget has slashed borrowing by almost $40 million to $101.6 million, slightly below 2009 levels.
Students and left-wing organizers have railed against Soglin for the wholesale cuts he has made to many areas. The editorial board of this newspaper published a piece condemning Soglin for essentially killing the development of the Edgewater Hotel. While I agree that the hotel development was a sound plan, we must also understand how the city’s spending ballooned disproportionately. In the face of declining revenues, Mayor Dave inexplicably allowed the budget to expand drastically. The 2011 budget was some 25 percent bigger than the previous year’s – and almost two-thirds of this expansion was financed by debt.
Soglin is merely doing the best he can with the cards he was given – and if we’re being honest, he received a pretty poor hand. Nonetheless, one cannot help but feel slightly betrayed by the budget, particularly as students. Even if Soglin felt he had no choice but to cut certain projects drastically, what is especially jarring is that he felt no need to consult UW student government organizations about the cuts that would affect the student body most heavily. Soglin was first voted into power on the back of the student vote. He would do well to remember his roots and pay some attention to this constituency.
To those suggesting that Soglin’s “cuts” to biking and pedestrian services were especially galling, I would recommend you crunch the numbers: This was the only area of the budget to actually gain increased funding from the 2011 budget. A number of the cycling projects, including the proposed $4.2 million Cannonball Bike Trail, have been delayed until next year. While this isn’t ideal, if the local economy picks up, come next year it’ll be business as usual.
To Paul Soglin, the development of the city of Madison is important, but it is secondary to fiscal responsibility. If Soglin was to continue the culture of profligate spending instigated by Mayor Dave, Madison could well go the way of Newark and Detroit – that is, facing impending fiscal insolvency.
A lot of liberals are suggesting that Soglin, in his pro-business stance, is perhaps no longer the Democrat he presents himself as. But urban planning was the area that was most harshly hit by the cuts, not social programs. The Edgewater project, and many others, found their funding withdrawn, to the tune of a 40 percent reduction in urban planning projects. Many of these would bring Madison significant financial windfall, as the Herald’s editorial board has previously noted. However, at this time, the city simply cannot afford to throw itself further into debt. For the Edgewater Hotel, this is untimely, possibly even catastrophic, but there is little to be done. If state revenues see an upturn in fortune, then next year’s budget may see the renewal of the Edgewater project. Of course, whether developers want to throw themselves into the project after its tumultuous course through the urban planning bureaucracy is another matter entirely.
The frustration with Paul Soglin’s budget is understandable, but as citizens of Madison, we must try to understand the circumstances in which Soglin’s mayoral term has begun. Running a place on debt is a risky business – ask Orange County, or better yet, Japan – and Mayor Soglin understands this. While the 2012 budget may not have been the one everyone has been hoping for, 2012 hasn’t been the year everyone is hoping for either. The economy hasn’t recovered, jobs are still scarce and our national government still can’t do its job. The last two times Soglin was in office he did a pretty good job. Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt and believe that he’ll do it again.
Shawn Rajanayagam ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in political science and American studies.
