By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog
The sponsors could’ve just as easily named A2035/S927 the ‘Memorial Day Parade Float Act,’ Save Jerseyans. Car dealerships exercise considerable influence in state politics attributable to their sheer numbers and significant presence in our local communities. It’s a $22.7 billion, 35,000 member industry with a considerable ability to help campaigns and, of course, provide that gratis convertible rental for the candidates’ parade participation. Hence, my proposed alternative name above.
No, the motives behind the “New Jersey Franchise Practices Act” (its real name) isn’t hard to understand. The logic under-girding the substantive provisions of this particular piece of legislation is more of a stretch:
“Among them is a measure that seeks to prevent car manufacturers from requiring franchisees to offer incentives, which the car manufacturers said would limit the incentives that dealerships offer consumers to encourage them to buy a vehicle. Another provision the carmakers oppose would expose a manufacturer to treble damages if it lost litigation in court over an alleged violation of the state Franchise Practices Act.”
Take a look under the hood. Bye bye 0% financing! Prices for purchases and repairs may rise. And treble = triple, btw, for those of you who were condemned to an Abbott District by some of the folks who are backing this instant measure.
Opposition to the legislation is spearheaded by the ‘Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers,’ an association comprised of twelve vehicle manufacturers with substantial New Jersey including BMW Group, Chrysler Group LLC, Ford Motor Company, General Motors Company, Jaguar Land Rover, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz USA, Mitsubishi Motors, Porsche, Toyota, Volkswagen Group of America and Volvo Cars North America.
First and foremost, they cite the negative impact on the state’s 4,000 manufacturer-end employees working at 30 facilities. “If passed into law, Assembly Bill 2035 and its Senate companion – Senate Bill 927 – would create the most onerous, anti-consumer, anti-business auto franchise regulations in the country,” the automakers’ North American corporate heads wrote to Senate President Sweeney in a letter. “SB 927 devalues these significant automaker investments in New Jersey and has the potential to influence future market decisions within a very competitive industry. It unfairly restricts automaker input into how the very products we make are presented, marketed, and sold and upends any balance that currently remains between manufacturers and franchised dealers in the state we currently call home.”
Remains is key because the legislature just rewrote portions of the franchise regs back in 2011. Since when was it government’s job to rewrite contracts on a regular basis in order to curry political support? ‘Cause that’s what this is at its core, and there’s nothing pro-growth about giving a major industry no certainty as to whether its property – real, intellectual or otherwise – is secure.
In case you were wondering, “balance” is the most commonly cited reason offered by the Act’s proponents in favor of passage. Count me among the skeptical, Save Jerseyans, for all of the reasons set forth above and one other. What other? I can’t help but be guided by history, and whenever Trenton tries to tinker with the operations of a private industry, the balance inevitably seems swing against the people paying taxes, consuming taxable goods and employing N.J. workers.
Another economic fender-bender is inevitable if A2025/S927 gets through the Senate (it’s already cleared the lower chamber). We need that like we need another hole in our collective head – or muffler.
What, EXACTLY, is the motivation behind this absurdity?
Nothing will change as long as we have Democrats and mealy-mouthed “Republicans” in the State House and Senate.
We need a part-time legislature at both levels. They need to be subject to the same rules and regulations as the rest of us, and that’s just not the case.
We need our legislators to have term limits – too many of them have been there for years and have forgotten why and how they got to where they are.
We need to remove their safety net of a pension and healthcare so they know what it is to live in New Jersey today.