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BornToFly

Active Member
Supporting Member
May 8, 2013
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Baby Jet
You can buy a Tesla in Communist China, but the following people voted to block Tesla from selling it's cars in Utah. They care more about protecting an outdated business model, than supporting a ground breaking AMERICAN car company that, according to Consumer Reports, builds the best car ever tested with a score of 99/100, and that has the highest customer satisfaction rating of any car. It also helps address Utah's terrible air quality problem. We need to make sure that every corrupt politician on this list is voted out of office. Please share this on your page so that everyone can see their names.
Name District Party
Johnny Anderson 34 Republican
Patrice M Arent 36 Democratic
Stewart E. Barlow 17 Republican
Joel K Briscoe 25 Democratic
Melvin R Brown 53 Republican
Rebecca Chavez-Houck 24 Democratic
Chew, Scott H. 55 Republican
LaVar Christensen 32 Republican
Rich Cunningham 50 Republican
Brad L Dee 11 Republican
DiCaro, Sophia M. 31 Republican
Susan Duckworth 22 Democratic
Rebecca P Edwards 20 Republican
Steve Eliason 45 Republican
Gage Froerer 8 Republican
Stephen G Handy 16 Republican
Hollins, Sandra 23 Democratic
Eric K Hutchings 38 Republican
Don L Ipson 75 Republican
Ken Ivory 47 Republican
King, Brad 69 Democratic
Brian S King 28 Democratic
Bradley G Last 71 Republican
Kay L McIff 70 Republican
Miller, Justin J. 40 Democratic
Merrill F. Nelson 68 Republican
Michael E Noel 73 Republican
Curtis Oda 14 Republican
Lee B Perry 29 Republican
Jeremy A Peterson 9 Republican
Val L Peterson 59 Republican
Paul Ray 13 Republican
Angela Romero 26 Democratic
Douglas Sagers 21 Republican
Sandall, Scott D. 1 Republican
Schultz, Mike 12 Republican
V. Lowry Snow 74 Republican
Jon E. Stanard 62 Republican
 
Brian King (House district 28 and minority leader) replied to my email. Lame excuses is all I can say.
Hi Kyle,

Thank you for writing about HB 394. Let me explain why I voted against the bill. Tesla supports an innovative business model and these types of disruptions can be helpful to improving the way other dealers work. I appreciate the beneficial effect that their electric cars have for our environment. There are significant issues with the car dealership model currently located in Utah and I hope that we will continue to look at fixing it. My issue with this bill revolves around the rushed nature of the bill.

The substitute was billed as a very narrow loophole for Tesla and a compromise between the various stakeholders, but was presented to us on the floor in the midst of discussing the bill. Without having proper time to vet the bill, it was difficult for us to receive the necessary input from the various parties involved. There is still significant concern about opening a loophole for car manufacturers to sell cars online, undercutting our dealerships here in Utah in addition to removing sales tax proceeds from car sales. While car dealerships may have their faults, they are a significant employer of Utah's working class and work hard to be good community partners.

If this were a simple vote on whether or not to bring Tesla into the Utah market, I would be strongly in favor. This is more a vote on the language of the bill and the process through which it has advanced. I will continue to work with Rep. Coleman on a solution during the interim.

Thank you for writing. Feel free to contact me about any other issues that may arise in the few days we have left.

Brian​

Brian S. King

Utah House of Representatives, District 28
 
I don't understand why he's saying they'd lose out on sales tax. Doesn't Utah DMV collect sales tax at time of registration, if it hasn't yet been paid? That's how it works in most places.
That is a very good point Bonnie.

As I remember it that is how it worked when I bought my LEAF from a dealer in CA and had it shipped to Utah.
 
Brian King (House district 28 and minority leader) replied to my email. Lame excuses is all I can say.

Thanks for posting that. I can see his point about not rushing bills through, that would be bad, but these two sentences irk me:

There is still significant concern about opening a loophole for car manufacturers to sell cars online, undercutting our dealerships here in Utah in addition to removing sales tax proceeds from car sales.

What would be stopping the Utah dealerships themselves from selling cars online? How is that a loophole? I'm sure that happens already. And I don't see how sales tax revenue would be removed, don't you collect that when you register the car with the DMV?

While car dealerships may have their faults, they are a significant employer of Utah's working class and work hard to be good community partners.

Who do they think work in Tesla's stores? They're not working class? And I'm sure Tesla can add some community support (little league and stuff I heard) to the stores' budgets.
 
Brian King (House district 28 and minority leader) replied to my email. Lame excuses is all I can say.

" undercutting our dealerships here in Utah in addition to removing sales tax proceeds from car sales. "

So the wording ALSO included doing away with sales tax on EVs? Allowing the sale of EVs and doing away with sales tax on EVs should be two separate things. If they tried to remove the sales tax in the bill, it sounds like it did need further investigation. If they don't know what that means for the state's economy, they do need to take the time to see what that means. Cleaner are is nice, though.
 
Some points to rebut the concerns. These should be used - you might wish to tweak them if you can think of ways better tailored to a specific person - in any discussion with one of your solons:

* sales tax collected is absolutely independent of the dealership model

* Tesla service/sales center employees are absolutely equal to those of franchise dealers' employees in terms of being economic entities

* Tesla service/sales operations DO create economic multiplier effects: they do cascade business for local tire distributors, shop material distributors, building maintenance operators, sign/banner shops, employee servicers such as luncheonettes. Other than not patronizing oil/lube distributors, there is ZERO functional difference to the local or state economy between a dealership that is owned by a parent company (TM), and one owned by an independent franchisor.
 
Maybe they're more concerned about missing road tax at the gasoline pumps for EV, in general, and they want to suppress the popularity of EV. You know, too much range in a Tesla... makes it too viable for that expansive state.

But with a model that Oregon state is offering, whole new take on road tax now... that will catch EV, if you'd be foolish enough to volunteer for it.
State of Oregon: Road Usage Charge Program
 
I have an S85D on order for May delivery & was very disappointed in the outcome of the vote...I had written both representatives (I vote in Park City & have a condo in SLC) & sent the petition to my friends.... The Summit county rep voted in favor but the SLC rep voted against (no surprise with all of the dealerships in her district). However, the impact on Tesla and visibility of the store in the valley may be slight....I called tesla & they indicated that one won't be able to place a downpayment in the store (but you can use their computer to do so), sales people can't discuss pricing (but you can look at the stickers on showroom vehicles), and you can't take delivery at the store (they truck it to your home). All the other stuff....test drives, service center, supercharger, etc are unaffected. Still, sends (cough!), the (hack!), wrong (choke!) message in our polluted inverted city...
 
I don't know politics from a hole in the ground, but his reply seems to be a boiler-plate response that the legislators had a staff member write up hurriedly in order to mollify the Tesla owners and future customers in Utah.

As others correctly pointed out, some of his excuses for voting against the legislation are specious at best.
 
I think it would be nice if the local Tesla owners started having Cars and Coffee events at the Salt Lake City Tesla Store on Saturday mornings. they could open the events to other EV's as well. Owners could legally provide ordering,delivery and pricing information to any person who comes by. They could even assist in placing orders. I would guess that Tesla would provide the K-cups and hot water. I might even consider driving up from San Diego myself to help out.
 
Text of the bill located here:
Utah State Legislature

I don't really see how they could lose out on sales tax. But I've only briefly scanned the bill and I'm not overly familiar with Utah law.

The law does goes so far as to require Tesla to have a service center in the state in order to licensed to sell cars there.

Edit: Looking at the law it requires an "online dealer" to have a sales tax license just like any other dealer. Presumably having the sales tax license means Tesla would have to collect sales tax for Utah.
 
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I was at the Capital when the bill was presented and debated at the initial committee hearing before it went to the entire House. I did not hear anything in the bill that would have changed the fact that Utah collects sales tax when you register the vehicle. Any comments about sales tax revenue for the state are BS. As it stands now, there is some confusing stuff about which cities or counties also get money from the sale of cars. Most of them do not get revenue from dealership car sales, and I don't see how the Tesla store would change anything there.
 
This is the response I received:
Thank you for our email. My vote was not because I am a believer in disruptive technologies. My concern is that we take a little time and do this in an orderly manner. The new car dealers are 15 percent of our economy. We need to implement this in a way that that is beneficial to all. TESLA in committee stated that they thought they could operate under current Utah Law. Currently, 22 states have on-line sales. I think we need to follow this trend. I just believe we need to do it following best practices.

Val