By a 29-20 vote, the Republican-controlled/Seattle-hating state Senate passed ESB 5726 today, a bill intended to eviscerate Seattle's paid sick leave ordinance

Summary of Bill: A local government, including a city, town, code city, or county, cannot apply a paid sick leave or paid safe leave program to an employer whose principal place of business is outside the local government's limits. A local government cannot apply a paid sick leave or paid safe leave program to an employee whose principal place of employment is outside the local government's limits, even if the employer's principal place of business is within the local government's limits.

The impact of this bill would be twofold. First, any employer with a principal place of business outside of Seattle—that means most national and regional chains—would be exempt from Seattle's sick leave law, intentionally creating a competitive disadvantage for small businesses wholly located within city limits. Second, it's basically an incentive for Seattle companies to move their "principal place of business" outside of Seattle. Ha, ha, gotcha, Seattle! And so forth.

Personally, I think that Senators Bailey, Baumgartner, Becker, Benton, Braun, Brown, Carrell, Dammeier, Eide, Ericksen, Fain, Hargrove, Hatfield, Hewitt, Hill, Hobbs, Holmquist Newbry, Honeyford, King, Litzow, Padden, Parlette, Pearson, Rivers, Roach, Schoesler, Sheldon, Smith, and (of course) Tom can all go fuck themselves.

I just hope there's enough discipline in the Democratic caucus to keep this overtly anti-Seattle piece of legislation from passing the House. Because honestly, our paid sick leave ordinance is none of the rest of the state's business.