The-News-Leader.com - Poll shows Ohio voters favor sick days issue

by Marc Kovac

Capital Bureau Chief

Columbus -- Ohio voters continue to voice their support of a ballot issue requiring many employers to provide paid sick days off for their workers, with nearly three to one in favor when questioned as part of a poll released this week.

The Quinnipiac University Polling Institute asked 1,342 likely Ohio voters about the issue during the first week of August.

Of those, 69 percent said they support requiring all Ohio companies with 25 or more employees to provide workers at least seven paid sick days per year. Twenty-seven percent opposed the issue, while 4 percent did not have an opinion.

The results are comparable to a similar poll conducted by Quinnipiac in June, in which 71 percent supported the paid sick days initiative and 24 percent opposed it.

"It's been two months now, and nothing's changed," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the institute, which regularly polls Ohioans' opinions on political issues and candidates.

He added, "The business interest is trying to defeat this proposal. They have a long way to go -- this is very popular."

Most poll respondents also did not think the initiative would prompt businesses to leave the state; 58 percent said "no" to that question, compared to 32 percent who said "yes." Another 10 percent voiced no opinion.

Senate President Bill Harris, R-Ashland, who is among the outspoken opponents of the paid sick days measure, said Aug. 14 he was not surprised by the results.

"Most of us, when you ask the question, 'Would you support X number of days that employees could be paid as sick leave,' I think most people would say yes," he said.

But Harris and other Republicans and business groups have voiced concern that the ballot issue, as written, would create a new government mandate for businesses that would prove costly to implement and take away their flexibility in handling employee benefit packages.

Proponents of the paid sick days campaign said Aug. 14 that they had collected 1,100-plus signatures on a letter they planned to submit to Gov. Ted Strickland, stating they are "counting on him" to support the issue.

Copies of the letter are available online at www.sickdaysohio.org.

Marc Kovac is the Dix Newspapers Capital Bureau chief. E-mail him at mkovac@dixcom.com. His Capital Blog can be found online at blogs.dixcdn.com/capitalblog/.