This report is enough to make you sick

Just reading the Wisconsin State Journal story is enough to make your stomach hurt:

Up to 185 companies would leave Madison - taking with them nearly $21 million in property tax revenues - if the city enacts a proposal requiring employers to give workers paid sick days, according to a study to be released today by business advocates.

Under that worst-case scenario, the report projects that the exodus would force nearly 6,000 workers to move or face much longer commutes. For some companies, a paid sick leave law would destroy already-thin profit margins and force them out of business entirely, the report continues.

The study, obtained by the Wisconsin State Journal on Wednesday, found that even under more modest projections, the law would blow a $4.2 million hole in the city's operating budget.

The Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce commissioned the report as part of its continued fight against the proposal, and has planned a morning news conference to discuss the findings today.

What a load of crap. I'll bet it really took some enterprise for reporter Ben Fischer to get the Chamber to "leak" the story, which it displayed prominently on page one.

This is the same kind of "study" that warned Wisconsin would lose all sorts of jobs if it raised the minimum wage. We raised the minimum wage. Heard about a lot of entry-level jobs being eliminated? Of course not.

Business is horrified at the idea that most workers be allowed up to nine sick days a year.

I don't know much about this particular proposal. I support the concept that workers should be paid for legitimate sick days.

Better yet would be to see that all workers have health insurance, which could reduce the number of days they're sick. But the Chamber doesn't want to do that, either.

I have serious doubts that this city ordinance is the solution to the sick leave issue.

But I know a bogus "study" when I see one, and this one is a classic.

UPDATE: Study is totally bogus; Chamber drowns sorrows at Avenue Bar.