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 ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in electrical engineering.