Auto dealership bill sent to governor
SPRINGFIELD – In six legislative days, state Rep. Bill Black, R-Danville, and allies managed to pass and send to the governor's desk a bill aimed at helping auto dealers who lost their franchises in auto manufacturers' bankruptcy.
"I'm just thrilled," said Danville auto dealer Gary Knight, owner and president of Carmack Car Capitol and a former Jeep and Chrysler dealer. "It's a process that started with Bill Black, and we had to do it in a hurry. But everything fell into place.
"It's just a matter of protecting the rights of the dealers. That's all I wanted to do."
The legislation, which cleared the Senate on Thursday, 56-1, and the House on Friday, 113-0, provides that dealers who were forced by manufacturers such as Chrysler or General Motors to give up their local franchises would get the first shot at regaining a local franchise if a manufacturer wanted to return to a market.
Originally the local franchisee protections were to last for four years. A Senate amendment shortened that to three years.
The House agreed to the amendment.
"The (Illinois Automotive Association) estimates our state will be losing 110 dealerships as a result of a federal bankruptcy procedure entered into by General Motors and Chrysler," Black said. "Several in East Central Illinois have already closed. For our communities, it's a loss of jobs and revenue, and that's bad enough. But for the families that have operated these dealerships for decades, it's a loss of their life's work. Certainly they should get the first chance to reopen those dealerships when the economy begins to rebound."
Black's legislation was modeled after a similar bill that cleared the North Carolina Legislature.
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