Milwaukee voters rose up en masse three years ago and by over a two-thirds majority passed a referendum mandating that large businesses in the city must provide their workers with up to nine sick days a year, with small businesses required to provide up to five such days. It was an effort galvanized by Milwaukee 9 to 5, the worker rights group, and it resonated big time with the working class, but not with big bidness.
The local chamber of commerce fought the deal long and hard in court, but -- as is now the custom in red-flagged Wisconsin -- conservatives didn't trust that the third branch of government -- supposedly infested as it is by liberal, permissive judges like unmensch state Supreme Court Justice David Prosser -- would rule there was anything illegal about the citizenry imposing such a requirement on businesses.
Thus, just to be sure, the state's whack-a-doodle Republican-controlled legislature preempted the legal process. It enacted a statewide law banning such sick day ordinances, thus deleting the local law. Gov. Scott "Wisconsin is open for business" Walker signed it promptly.
So much for the much-vaunted Republican ideal of local control. Local control by business interests, maybe.
Yesterday, the Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge handling the chamber of commerce lawsuit ended the case, saying it was now moot thanks to the work of the legislature.
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Judge Thomas Cooper "complimented" attorneys for the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce for their draft of the state legislation that killed the law. "You put a bull's-eye on paid sick days," the newspaper quoted Cooper.
At the commerce association offices, they're no doubt partying like it's '99 -- 1899, that is.
What's next? Well, the city council just approved spending around $60 million to build a modern downtown streetcar system. Since Gov. Walker and Republicans in general hate trains, maybe they'll now try to pass a law banning the city from having that, too. After all, what good is a a streetcar in Milwaukee if you're a wingnut Republican who lives in upstate Tigerton?
Here's a link to the Journal Sentinel story today on the sick pay denouement:
http://www.jsonline.com/...