The sick leave bill currently before the state Assembly is, on one hand, about a questionable perk for elected officials. On the other hand, however, it is about whether elected officials need to be members of the financial elite in order to survive.
Under the current system, elected officials enjoy the same sick leave benefit as other state employees—who can accumulate the monetary value of unused sick days as long as they hold their job. Upon retirement, this money can be used to purchase health insurance.
The Republican-sponsored bill would deny this sick leave benefit to all state elected officials—including legislators, judges and district attorneys.
According to Republicans, the sick leave benefit should not apply to elected officials because—unlike normal state employees—they work for their constituents rather than regular bosses. In short, no single individual can supervise elected officials' use of sick leave. As a result, the benefit can be easily abused.
The Republicans have a point. Only two of 132 legislators have posted sick days in the past four years, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel—an improbably low figure. Meanwhile, the other 130 are busy squirreling away sick days for a future cash-out.
Viewed this way, our legislators' behavior is deplorable, and the move last week by state Rep. Marlin Schneider, D-Wisconsin Rapids, to quash a vote on the bill seems strange and misdirected. Why should taxpayers pay for a benefit that is so widely misused?
The bill is expected to come up for a vote in the state Assembly again Thursday and deserves to pass. It is no wonder that Schneider has an accrued stash of sick leave benefits worth more than $110,000. He represents the self-interested obstructionist that many state Democrats have become.
The public is obviously short-changed when elected officials take advantage of the public's largesse—such as by abusing the current sick leave policy—and it is also short-changed when elected officials even have access to such a distorted policy. Only by passing this bill to abolish sick leave benefits can state Democrats prove their commitment to a fair and functioning democracy.
