OUR VIEW: Ohio could boost Hoosier economy

We think Hoosiers should encourage Ohio residents to support an effort that would require Ohio companies with at least 25 employees to offer at least seven sick days a year. Such a program — in Ohio — would be great news for Indiana’s economy.

Service Employees International Union District 1199 is pushing an effort to get that plan on the ballot in November 2008 to help drive Democratic voter turnout, The Associated Press reports.

It would be yet another reason for businesses not to choose Ohio, but that isn’t deterring the union. We say go, brothers, get it on the ballot and get it enacted into law.

Ohio already has high taxes, a higher minimum wage and a smoking ban. Why wouldn’t the union look for one more way to keep jobs from being created there?

A spokesman for the National Federation of Independent Businesses of Ohio told AP the measure is unnecessary because companies may already offer more money or vacation days instead of seven sick days. We’d agree and add that business owners have a better idea of what benefits they can afford to offer; employees have voluntarily accepted those and their wages in exchange for their labor.

But the union has completed the first phase of gathering petition signatures.

“Workers should not have to choose between a paycheck and recovery time when they get sick,” the union said in a statement.

Measures like this one will ensure the paycheck won’t even be an option for even more Ohioans and perhaps ensure that more companies like Honda and Nestle choose Indiana over Ohio as homes for their plants, much as they did with announcements last year. Again, that’d be good news for the Hoosier economy.

Let’s hope the idea doesn’t cross the state line.