Legislators don’t know small-business needs

The recent tabulation of what issues will be argued and voted upon in the Iowa Legislature in the next 60 days reinforces the argument that our legislature schedules too long a session. In a time when the U.S. Congress is wrestling with the problem of how to encourage small business to expand and hire more employees, it appears that our state legislature is attempting to place more requirements on small business, which raises their costs and discourages them from hiring.

Why must employers be forced to comply with restrictive and unnecessary rules that some representatives believe should be universal? Most of these legislators have never employed and, therefore, never paid the wages of anybody. How is it that they know best how to establish rules for running businesses?

For instance, has it never occurred to our representatives that a manager might give an employee compensatory time off to see a dentist or doctor, stay home with a sick child, or nurture a cold? Isn't it logical to assume that these employers have dealt with “sick day” problems for years without our government establishing rules as to how they should handle them? There is more to say on this subject.

Henry T. Madden

Iowa City