Advocacy

Your association leadership travels to Washington DC each year to advocate on behalf of independent dealers. We are one of the most highly regulated industries in the United States and it’s important that we fight for fair regulations that protect both our dealers and their buyers. For more information on how the association advocates for your dealership and you as a consumer, feel free to contact us.

AIADA PAC

Alabama Independent Automobile Dealers Association
Legislative Report

What your Pac Fund is doing for you

Ask yourself this: How many times have you and/or a fellow dealer said Montgomery does not know what we need. That has been our fault not Montgomery’s… Your association AIADA (Alabama Independent Automobile Dealers Association) has been working in Montgomery with our Legislators.

These are a few of the things we accomplished in the last two legislative sessions by going to Montgomery, talking with our Legislators and sharing our needs:

• Air Bag Bill: A bill was being introduced which would make it a criminal felony if you sold a vehicle and the airbag did not deploy. It did not matter if you replaced the airbag or bought/traded for the vehicle without knowledge of the airbag replacement. We got the wording changed not to hold the dealer who bought or traded for the vehicle responsible, but hold the person who replaced the airbag being responsible.
• GPS Bill: A bill was intruded to not let dealers/finance companies use GPS Devices. This would affect Secondary Financing and BHPH Dealers. Some Secondary Bank would not be able to do business in Alabama if this bill passed. We don’t need lenders leaving our state, we want more to come in. The more lenders, the more customers that are able to buy vehicles.
  We worked with the Legislators and had the bill killed.
• Abandoned Vehicle Towing / Storage Bill: This bill needed to passed to help our Banks, Finance Companies, Secondary Banks and BHPH Dealers. The more banks and finance companies in Alabama will result in more deals we can get bought. We are working hard to make Alabama more friendly to our lenders. The new bill will make the Banks, Finance Companies, Secondary Banks and BHPH Dealers aware of the vehicle being picked up in as soon as 48 hours and no later the 5 days. This will help the towing companies better commutate with the lenders and reduce cost.
• Sales Tax Increase on Automotive Sales: A bill was introduced to double the sales tax on automotive sales, as you and I know this would be a terrible burden on the Alabama Tax player.
  We worked with the Legislators and had the bill killed.

These are only a few of the bills we worked on in Alabama. When we talk with the Legislators and Senators, we set down just like you and I do. We talk about the impact some the bills will have on the citizens of Alabama and the impact it will have on our industry. These guys are just like you and I, they want the best for Alabama and the more they understand our industry, the more they can do to Alabama the best state in the nation to buy a used vehicle.

They will be more bills that affect us in the future, the better the communication between us, the better the outcome. This can only be done face to face, your association needs your support, it’s not easy, but good results seldom are.

These Legislators and Senators are elected officials; we need to help the ones who help us stay in Montgomery and get the ones out who don’t. We will back the ones who help us in the election and we will support the ones running against the ones out who don’t. As you can see by going to Montgomery and sharing our needs, have made us very successful.

To keep this success in Montgomery going Chad Tillery is in charge of our political action committee (PAC). Chad along with the AIADA Board has come up with a simple plan to grow our PAC Fund…
At the last board meeting the Board of Directors pledged to give $1.00 per vehicle sold at their dealership to the Auto-Pac fund. This donation will come from our personal account not our business. We are doing this in effort to raise money for our Pac fund without breaking the bank. As Pac-Fund Chairman I am asking for 100% participation from our AIADA members in pledging $1.00 per deal from your account. Here is an overview of what our AIADA PAC-FUND is set up for. Thanks in advance for your willingness to give.

AutoPAC, the AIADA Political Action Committee, is the mechanism by which AIADA participates in the political process to make contributions in state legislative races and races involving state-wide offices.
AutoPAC provides opportunities to give candidates and officeholders an understanding of AIADA interest and issues, and it gives our members the ability to extend their influence well beyond their own legislative districts.

While individual dealer participation in political races is always important, AutoPAC gives all the dealers of Alabama the opportunity to speak with one voice. As an association of over 750 Dealers in Alabama our strength is greatest when we speak with that collective voice, and that is why AutoPAC is critically important to the success of the AIADA legislative program.

The legislative team at AIADA diligently keeps the independent auto dealers’ best interest at the forefront. That is why it is imperative that AIADA has the resources it needs for AutoPAC to support candidates and officeholders who understand our goals and support our association.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me at Randy Jones, AIADA Executive Director at (205)790-3020 or email randyejones@live.com