From: Witkowski, Terry
Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2008 11:10 AM
To: Leonhardt, Ronald
Subject: FW: Forced paid sick leave

The idea of private business in Milwaukee forced to pay for up to nine sick days per year is a joke.  Mindless liberals once again don't get it.  I am a business owner in Milwaukee.  If this is forced upon my company, guess what?  My employees vacation time will be cut, and the overall hours of my employees will be cut to compensate for this added expense.  Most businesses here are in a competitive environment.  I pay the going rate for employees that work in my field.  I offer the sick leave and benefits for employees that my business can afford.  I would not be able to afford to absorb the added expense without making cuts elsewhere.  Anyone who thinks this is going to ultimately benefit employees in Milwaukee is sadly mistaken.  This is a typical liberal idea:  Think with emotion and not with objectivity.  This just gives another reason not to do business in Milwaukee.  If this goes through, I will consider moving my business out of Milwaukee and then all of my employees lose their jobs.  Is that what you want?  Leave it to the business owners to run their business, not the employees or the government who doesn't know the first thing about how my business runs.  Employees always want more from the employers.  They see I drive a nice car and live in a nice home and somehow think they deserve that too?  Maybe someday when they own their own business and are on the hook for millions of dollars of leases, rent, payroll taxes, etc they can have a nice car too.  I am the one who bears all of the risk in my business.  My employees punch a clock and they are done.  They don't have to worry about how they will come up with over $100 thousand dollars per month in expenses.  This is a poor plan that will drive even more business out of Milwaukee.  Haven't we done enough to push business out of the city and state?  Wake up and make sure you base your ideas in reality.

Regards,

Dean