PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE As we head into 2024, I’d like to take this opportunity to look back over the past year, reflect on the many challenges we faced and conquered and welcome the opportunity of a new year. The Texas Legislature, despite having a record surplus, seemingly faced a number of conflicts between the two chambers and experienced a significant number of special sessions with limited results. For dealers, legislation was passed that will require hard plating by dealers of purchased or leased vehicles instead of using the current paper tags, which is scheduled to begin in July 2025. At the same time, legislation was defeated that would have forced dealers to accept any outside financing and that would have allowed manufacturers to play a larger role in the selling of used vehicles. Lucid filed a federal lawsuit early last year against the leadership at the Texas DMV, seeking to overturn the state’s franchise laws and allow manufacturers to sell directly to consumers. On the federal front, the lack of collaborative work in Congress was again seen with Republicans controlling the U.S. House and Democrats controlling the U.S. Senate. Despite the lack of results on the legislative front, a number of federal agencies proposed significant changes that will impact dealers, including additional paperwork requirements by the FTC for dealers and consumers and the EPA holding to stringent electric vehicle production requirements despite a seeming lack of consumer demand. However, there is reason for much hope and promise in a bright 2024. The year will open with inventory available for the dealers and their customers. Service for dealers has been strong and it is hopeful that a number of the persistent supply chain issues will continue to show improvement. Next year also will be busy on the political front with the national election at the forefront and numerous state races as well. The failed impeachment effort of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and failure to pass school vouchers has led Republican leaders to be more active in House primaries. They are targeting a number of the 60 House Republicans who voted to impeach Paxton, while Abbott is focusing his energy on a group of 21 Republicans who voted to strip a voucher proposal out of the broad education bill this last special session. As of now, there are 86 Republicans serving in the Texas House and 64 Democrats. Of the 60 Republicans that voted for impeachment, 42 have primary foes. On the voucher vote, 15 of the 21 Republicans have at least one challenger. The Texas Tribune put together a really good graphic on the subject, which you can find by scanning the QR code. Conversely, only 12 of the 64 House Democrats have challengers. https://www.texastribune.org/2023/12/21/ texas-house-republicans-paxton-abbott/ KEEPING TEXAS STRONG By Darren Whitehurst, TADA President continued on page 8 7 DEALERS’ CHOICE
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