In many games where you can set the tax rate, increasing taxes decrease happiness of your population and overall productivity level. There's a trade off, just like in real life. I don't think incorporating such a mechanism implies any inherent political agenda. If the game is poorly balanced, then the metagame might favor certain choices though.
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Whether there's an agenda is one thing, but I wonder more about what the material itself promotes, regardless of the designers intention.
It seems to be that in the case of SimCity in particular that since it has been established to be considered a teaching tool by it's creators that it is worth asking what is taught, and what things are taught along with the salient teaching points.