Two newly elected Democratic Wisconsin State Senators are working on a bill to repeal rollover sick leave benefits.

Racine’s John Lehman and Wauwatosa’s Jim Sullivan are likely in for a fight as many long time established legislators may not look to kindly on the stripping of the benefit.

Fringe benefits in the public sector have come under fire in recent years as the public is worried about others getting a benefit that they might not have available to them. In truth, most private sector employers do not offer the ability to cash out sick days or to credit the amount of time an employee has accumulated in sick days toward their time on the job.

Interestingly enough, it might be the Republican’s who put up the biggest stink over Lehman and Sullivan trying to strip away this benefit.

For years, Republicans have enjoyed this benefit and it has remained largely unquestioned.

Despite the rhetoric of opposing government waste an inequities between the private and public sector, Republicans who were in power kept this benefit largely quiet and few stirred the pot about this dirty little secret. Despite a decade of Republicans controlling the Governors mansion (during the reign of Tommy Thompson), the State Assembly and the State Senate (a legislative tri-fecta), nothing happened and no one spoke of these benefits going away.

Now the question is how big the fireworks will be when the Lehman and Sullivan bill hits the media. How much will be said about the two maverick democrats who said “no, this benefit is wrong and it should be repealed”.