Chamber of Commerce report really is wrong

Yesterday, the Xoff Files predicted that a Chamber of Commerce study released yesterday making wild claims about the affects of a proposal to require city employers to give their employees sick leave is bogus. Turns out he was right according to today's Wisconsin State Journal.

A wrong decimal point placement, a few unsound assumptions, and using some wrong numbers produced some pretty exaggerated results for the Chamber of Commerce. For example, the report originally said the proposal was going to cost the city of Madison $21 million in property tax losses. That is exaggerated by ten times because the decimal point is in the wrong place. It also assumes that if a business did leave Madison because of this proposal that the property itself stops having value.

The Madison City Council is divided on this issues and I'm not so sure this is the best way to tackle this issue. Employees should get sick leave but this proposal may need some work. However, lying about what is wrong with it is the best way to help get it passed.