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EDITORIAL: More anti-business mischief in Madison
City of Madison's loony ways should concern all citizens of Wisconsin.
JUST WHEN IT SEEMED the city of Madison surely could not reach loftier heights of absurdity, its commonsense-challenged citizens have risen to the occasion once more.
There's a new idea in the city which brought Wisconsin a municipally-mandated minimum wage and a total prohibition on smoking in restaurants and bars, over proprietors' objections.
Now a coalition proposes the Madison City Council mandate that businesses provide their workers with paid sick leave. Clearly, government has run amok in Wisconsin's capital city.
BY THE WAY, we certainly do not object to businesses providing employees with paid sick time. Most businesses which are sufficiently capitalized - read: profitable - already offer such benefits to attract and keep the best people. Usually, it's the smaller outfits just barely scraping by - generally employing part-time help - that have few if any benefits.
Workers tend to come and go quickly at such establishments, because people want to improve circumstances for themselves and their families by finding better pay and benefits elsewhere. Still, lower paying businesses with few benefits serve a purpose. They hire individuals with few skills or experience and provide them with a lift up the first rung on a career advancement ladder.
The deal between workers and employers - level of pay, benefits offered - should not be intruded upon by municipal governments. State and federal workplace rules and regulations are more than sufficient. Local government interference can do nothing but cause serious problems.
AND NOT JUST for the city of Madison. We have written in this space about Wisconsin's efforts to shake a so-called anti-business reputation. This is Wisconsin's capital city, the state's most visible municipality for many developers and investors. The kind of nonsense Madison has been engaging in will not play well with that audience.
The damage could spill over, too, as national firms question the wisdom of doing business in Wisconsin. This state needs to project a welcoming image.
The loony libs in Madison who want to use government to re-make the relationship between employers and employees should be stopped dead in their tracks. If that means cooler heads in the legislature must act to short-circuit such municipal mischief, get it done.
A FINAL WORD: Similar federal legislation is being proposed, to force businesses across the nation to give a certain number of paid sick days to all employees. The principal sponsor is - surprise, surprise - Sen. Ted Kennedy. Signing on in support - surprise, again - are Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold and 2nd District Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin. At least for these politicians, it's obviously easy to spend somebody else's money. But that doesn't make it right. And it surely doesn't make it effective. Think about it. If government orders XYZ Corporation to spend a pile of money on new benefits, is the company likely to just shrug and take it out of profits ... or cut expenses - read: employees - to cover the loss? The answer is obvious.
In practical terms, it won't happen. Kennedy, Feingold, Baldwin and their kindred spirits couldn't get this bill or any other through the Republican-controlled Congress. That's good news, for people who would like to keep their jobs.
JUST WHEN IT SEEMED the city of Madison surely could not reach loftier heights of absurdity, its commonsense-challenged citizens have risen to the occasion once more.
There's a new idea in the city which brought Wisconsin a municipally-mandated minimum wage and a total prohibition on smoking in restaurants and bars, over proprietors' objections.
Now a coalition proposes the Madison City Council mandate that businesses provide their workers with paid sick leave. Clearly, government has run amok in Wisconsin's capital city.
BY THE WAY, we certainly do not object to businesses providing employees with paid sick time. Most businesses which are sufficiently capitalized - read: profitable - already offer such benefits to attract and keep the best people. Usually, it's the smaller outfits just barely scraping by - generally employing part-time help - that have few if any benefits.
Workers tend to come and go quickly at such establishments, because people want to improve circumstances for themselves and their families by finding better pay and benefits elsewhere. Still, lower paying businesses with few benefits serve a purpose. They hire individuals with few skills or experience and provide them with a lift up the first rung on a career advancement ladder.
The deal between workers and employers - level of pay, benefits offered - should not be intruded upon by municipal governments. State and federal workplace rules and regulations are more than sufficient. Local government interference can do nothing but cause serious problems.
AND NOT JUST for the city of Madison. We have written in this space about Wisconsin's efforts to shake a so-called anti-business reputation. This is Wisconsin's capital city, the state's most visible municipality for many developers and investors. The kind of nonsense Madison has been engaging in will not play well with that audience.
The damage could spill over, too, as national firms question the wisdom of doing business in Wisconsin. This state needs to project a welcoming image.
The loony libs in Madison who want to use government to re-make the relationship between employers and employees should be stopped dead in their tracks. If that means cooler heads in the legislature must act to short-circuit such municipal mischief, get it done.
A FINAL WORD: Similar federal legislation is being proposed, to force businesses across the nation to give a certain number of paid sick days to all employees. The principal sponsor is - surprise, surprise - Sen. Ted Kennedy. Signing on in support - surprise, again - are Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold and 2nd District Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin. At least for these politicians, it's obviously easy to spend somebody else's money. But that doesn't make it right. And it surely doesn't make it effective. Think about it. If government orders XYZ Corporation to spend a pile of money on new benefits, is the company likely to just shrug and take it out of profits ... or cut expenses - read: employees - to cover the loss? The answer is obvious.
In practical terms, it won't happen. Kennedy, Feingold, Baldwin and their kindred spirits couldn't get this bill or any other through the Republican-controlled Congress. That's good news, for people who would like to keep their jobs.
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