(The Center Square) – A pair of conservative senators at the Wisconsin Capitol don’t like that the state’s Department of Transportation wants to get into the business of regulating office cubicles.
Both Sens. Duey Stroebel, R-Cedarburg, and Steve Nass, R-Whiterwater, are speaking out against a new plan that would force more regulations on auto wholesalers in the state.
“Much like with the wedding barn debate from November, this bill effectively asks the government to help stamp out a source of competition who was able to successfully carve out a niche in an over-regulated system,” Stroebel told The Center Square.
The plan, AB 625, quickly cleared an Assembly Committee on Tuesday without much debate.
The proposal would ban wholesalers from sharing an office space, renting that office space by the hour or day, having cubicles or having an office that is virtual or that rotates.
Stroebel said the only reason why auto wholesalers in the state have shared offices and cubicle spaces is because the state requires them to do so.
“These wholesale dealers are merely responding to the current level of government intervention being placed on them – and DOT’s response to this is to impose more government regulations,” Stroebel said. “As free market conservatives, we have always been taught that competition leads to better products and lower costs. I struggle to see how using the force of government to eliminate competition ever results in a win for consumers.”
The auto wholesalers buy cars at auction and then either flip them or sell them for parts.
Nass said putting those wholesalers out of business would lead to higher used car prices and likely higher insurance rates as well.
“AB 625 is another round of a long running multi-decade fight between elements of the auction of used vehicles community. The fight is between the wholesalers of used cars for resale and the salvagers of used cars for parts. The salvagers operating in Wisconsin are mostly based in the state and the wholesalers tend to be multi-state operators with only a few based in Wisconsin,” Nass said. “Frankly, both the wholesalers and salvagers have terrible reputations in many ways within the industry. Add on top of this, the fact both the salvagers and the wholesalers have always hired very well-connected, powerful lobbyists in Madison…you have all the ingredients for shady dealing in the Capitol.”
Nass did say, however, that the attempt to fix this problem simply creates another problem.
“AB 625 is a bill that attempts to create ridiculous criteria to allow DOT to not issue licenses to certain multi-state wholesalers,” he added.
