FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
News from Progress Michigan
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Contact: Jessica Tramontana, jessica@progressmichigan.org, 517-974-6302
LANSING – East Lansing Mayor pro tem Nathan Triplett and citizens’ watchdog group Progress Michigan condemned Rep. Aric Nesbitt today for suggesting in a regular meeting of the House Commerce Committee that allowing Michigan communities to adopt employer-provided paid sick leave ordinances would be “economic suicide.” House Bill 4249, legislation based on model legislation drafted by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), would attack workers by banning local communities from protecting workers’ right to paid sick leave. Not one Michigan community has adopted an ordinance protecting paid sick leave.
“If Rep. Nesbitt wants to tell any local communities how they should be run, he’s welcome to run for office in the Village of Lawton,” said Triplett. “In East Lansing, we’ve protected vital municipal services and invested in our community despite years of disinvestment by the state legislature – and the city has a AAA bond rating from Fitch. My colleagues and I on the East Lansing City Council don’t need Lansing politicians telling us how to run our community.”
This afternoon Triplett testified before the Commerce committee on House Bill 4249. At ALEC’s 2011 Annual Meeting, the Labor and Business Regulation subcommittee focused its entire meeting on the issue of paid sick leave. Politicians in attendance were handed copies of an ALEC model bill that would override municipal paid sick day laws. The subcommittee is co-chaired by Yum! Brands, Inc.
Contrary to ALEC member Nesbitt’s wild assertion of “economic suicide,” studies actually show that paid sick days reduce government spending on public health insurance programs and promote reduced dependence on public assistance programs. Paid sick day ordinances also provide long-term cost savings for employers through increased productivity, and savings from reduced workplace contagion. Despite this, two in five private sector workers can’t earn the basic paid sick leave time they need to care for themselves and their families when they are ill.
“It’s ironic that Aric Nesbitt would get paid if he was sick and missed work, but this legislation would deny Michigan families the same protection,” said Jessica Tramontana, Communications Director of Progress Michigan. “It’s time for Republican politicians like Rep. Nesbitt to stop copying and pasting their attacks on working families from corporate lobbyists. Our lawmakers should drop the unconstitutional unfunded mandates and get to work immediately creating jobs and improving education by investing in our local communities, and leave the local regulations to locally elected officials.”
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BACKGROUND
PR Watch: “Flu with that Burger? ALEC Wants Sick People Serving You Food”
Wisconsin Legislature: 2011 Senate Bill 23
Progress Michigan: “Aric Nesbitt’s Subcommittee Publishes A Report Only ALEC Could Love”
Rep. Nesbitt along with his friends from ALEC and AFP, the governor, the MI house and senate, the MI Supreme Court and Attorney Generals office are all operating the the assumption that their constituency will benefit by these kinds of wrong headed laws. They all promote a top down style of government which serves those who best benefit their own personal agendas, both overt and covert. They see Lansing as an engine to both enrich them and theirs, and to work own social engineering. PA 4 and its hybrid is the perfect example of Lansing (and non state entities) micro managing everybody else lives.
Sure all the folks that voted for him have never been sick a day in their lives or their family members. He really cares about Michigan people.