On a largely party-line vote, the Republican-controlled state Assembly on Tuesday approved an $81 billion, two-year spending plan with last-minute changes to increase funding for district attorneys and allow carmaker Tesla to sell directly to consumers.
The changes could appease a handful of skeptical conservatives in the Senate, which is also controlled by Republicans and where one more “no” vote could sink the budget in that chamber.
Senators take up the plan Wednesday. If passed, it would then go to Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who has broad authority to make changes.
Here is the vote.
Huzzah, huzzah for local representatives Gundrum, Brandtjen, and Ramthun. Apparently, they are the only conservatives left in the Assembly. How quickly this caucus snapped back to the Left without Governor Walker as a guardrail.
What’s wrong with you, Knodl? Jagler? Sanfelippo? Is this what you think your constituents want, or have you gone native? This vote is disgraceful.
And Robin Vos? You will never be governor of this state. You peaked and you blew your chance to be anything more than yet another Madison swamp creature.
Now we head to the State Senate. Hopefully my senator, Duey Stroebel, has a change in heart from his ill-advised JFC vote, joins the other conservatives in the caucus, and spiked this budget until they can come up with something better.
Thiesfeldt knows better as well. Did they all take silly pills?
Ramthun voted no in Kewaskum. That is very good.
Gee. My Senator is Fitzgerald. Think I can get him to vote “no”?
(Hint: Fitzie’s still running for Governor……)
And yet you will all vote for Vos if he gets the nom. We all know how that plays out for both sides.
I am happy to see that Tesla is allowed to sell directly to consumers. Eliminate the middleman car dealers if that is what customers want.
So, if you buy a vehicle directly from Tesla and are fortunate enough to take delivery before you die of old age… how do you get warranty or post-warranty work done if there are no Tesla “stores” in your neighborhood? Your corner auto clinics are employing Tesla trained and credentialed mechanics with access to OEM parts? Just asking for a wealthy friend with more money than he knows what to do with.
Owen….if you have all of the right answers I don’t understand why you don’t run for office. You seem to know exactly how everything should be done and how to do it without anybody questioning your ways. Please just run for President and save us all.
Is that you, Robin?
Yah, Belling’s desire to “get rid of all car dealers” displayed a vast ignorance of economic reality.
TESLA doesn’t want dealers because the mutt running the show doesn’t want to pay anyone to warehouse his cars. But that’s because he doesn’t have any volume at all.
Exactly how would GM, or Ford, or Chrysler warehouse and distribute cars without dealers? And how would their balance sheets absorb a couple-five BILLION in inventory?
Real players need the dealers. Tesla? Nope. But as Merlin sagely observed, the customers need dealers a lot more than Tesla does. Maybe they’ll get the idea while looking for service–in Chicago.
One more thing: where you gonna buy used cars when all the dealers pack up and live in Hawaii?
Think Tesla’s going to take trade-ins?
Is that you, Robin?
Good one. They abandoned fiscal responsibility the moment Walker’s boot left their asses. Invertebrates.
Telsa has service vehicles that will service your automobile onsite. And if it requires something more they have authorized service centers.
As far as used cars. There will always be used car dealers, even if there isn’t new car dealers. But frankly, I don’t care what the other big company’s do as far as selling. If they want to continue to use dealers, then fine. If they want to start to sell direct, I am fine with that as well. But a company should not be forced to work with a middleman. I don’t own a Tesla, but I wouldn’t be opposed to it either. Maybe when I get rid of my 2009 Honda Fit that I paid 7K for.
For 99% of the people, going to a dealership to buy a vehicle is a nightmare. The salesperson already knows the lowest price they can sell it for and their only goal is to keep you above that. They unnecessarily keep you there longer than needed and in general the salespeople come off as slimy.
The Customers don’t need dealers for new vehicles. Show me the options, show me the price, sell me the car. The only reason I would need a dealer is for a test drive. The days of haggling over price are slowing coming to an end. You used to deal with TV Lenny and get a different price, and now you walk into a Best Buy or order from Amazon.
I really hope that one of the big dealers tries out this model. There is no reason I shouldn’t be able to just order a car directly from GM or Ford and have it delivered to my house in a day or two.
Jonny, my friend, I probably know more about the car biz than you think. And FWIW, “customers” are the ones who want to haggle. Granted, the car biz taught them to do that in the ’50’s through today, but it ain’t just the sales-guys who are jerks. In fact, many of them ARE jerks because they have to deal with a**holes: customers.
Repeat: GM, Ford, Chrysler, VW, Toyota, Honda….all of them WANT dealers because dealers are ‘shock absorbers’ for the cost of distribution.
Here’s the math: the industry will sell about 16 million cars/trucks this year. Let’s assume they turn the inventory 6 times/year and each car/truck must be ‘on the books’ at a (very low) average cost of $20,000.00. Do the math: the automakers would have to put $53 BILLION in finished-goods inventory on their books. And that’s before they acquire the land and buildings necessary to warehouse all those cars.
Since Tesla may sell 500,000 cars, he “doesn’t need” dealers. But if he ever puts out a decent product that people can buy? He’ll be up the creek with no paddle.
Heh.
Kinda fun watching the True Free Market Conservatives argue for government protection of large industry. So we need a law that says a car company has to have dealers in order to protect and benefit consumers? Tell us, Dad29, is GM a car company or a finance company?
Show me EXACTLY where I stated that I said ‘a car company has to have dealers.’
That’s current law. Frankly, I don’t care either way. But it ain’t just “the dealers” who have an interest here, it’s the car companies, too–at least, the ones who actually sell a lot of cars.
Perhaps you learned how to read an income statement, Jiffy. Look at GM’s and answer your own rather stupid question.
So you’ll get agitated by minimum-markup laws on the gas sold to power them, but laws requiring cars to be sold via dealers, you don’t care? How do you feel about the logrolling prohibitions in state law? Too extreme, should be allowed to curry votes that way?
Every dealer in this COUNTRY would love to get 6% guaranteed minimum. I don’t propound stupid opinions about coding in native C; you should stay away from car economics.
Since you are clearly intellectually-challenged in reading, let me try one more time: the MANUFACTURERS NEED DEALERS. Yes, there’s symbiosis there, but so what?
Tesla doesn’t need dealers (yet) because he’s only a bit player–and if his quality and quantity issues continue, he’ll always be a bit player.
As I’m sure you read here, I’m not questioning whether some manufacturers think they need dealers. I’m asking whether you think there should be laws requiring it. Or you don’t care, but you don’t want the law changed because it would benefit Elon Musk today?
As for what you and I should “stay away from”… are you sitting on a more special kind of bar stool than I am? I’m supposed to defer to your wisdom because you’re 90 years old? I’m always willing to learn, are you?
Go ahead, tell us what GM Financial is, what they do, and how they make GM dealers possible.
jiffy, let me try again: show me exactly where I said the law requiring dealers must be retained.
I won’t hold my breath, and I won’t wait.
And while you’re discovering things on the intertubes, tell us what Comintern is, and how they make twits possible.