A state senator willing to poke the bear (the TADA)

Anyone here in Senate district 10 (Sen. Burton)? This includes much of Ft. Worth, Arlington, Colleyville, Southlake, and Bedford. I saw that Sen. Burton, who is in her first term in the senate, has introduced SB 441 which would end the Blue Laws for auto sales. The Blue Laws, for those under 50 or otherwise don't know, were laws that prohibited stores from opening on Sunday. When they were repealed in the auto dealer cartel got themselves exempted from the repeal in most states so they didn't have to compete with each other by opening on Sunday. In Texas it's written that auto dealers can't be open both Saturday and Sunday, and in practice it means almost all are closed on Sundays.

This bill doesn't have a snowball's chance in h... of passing, it doesn't even have a companion bill in the House, but it shows she is willing to poke the bear (the TADA). I was told by someone who used to work for the cartel that protecting their exemption from Blue Laws repeal has been one of TADA's top priorities every session. Does anyone in her district know why she was willing to antagonize the dealers this way? More importantly, this means she should be an easy sell on supporting SB 639 to allow Tesla to sell directly to consumers in Texas. Those of you who are in her district, please tell her you support her bill SB441 and encourage her to also support SB639 to allow direct sales.

Chris TX said:

There's a movement to get rid of the last of the blue laws, including the sales of alcohol on Sunday. I wonder if the "separation of church and state" part would help the fight. After all, these laws to have religious roots. TADA is going to have its hands full with this bill AND the Tesla bills. With a large enough voice, I think we can do this, this session.

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That's a common assumption and true in some states but the Texas laws do not have religious roots, they have economic roots. A ban on selling about 40 categories of products on Sunday passed in 1961 as a response to out-of-state chain stores moving into Texas, as a way to protect the small businesses. When the chain store influence became great enough in 1985 the law was mostly repealed, but auto sales were prohibited on consecutive weekend days at the insistence of the auto dealers who argued successfully that staying open seven days would increase their expenses.

TADA is not going to have its hands full with this bill. This bill will go nowhere, as there is no upside for a legislator in supporting it. That's why I referred to it as poking the bear. There is no organized constituency for it and the auto dealers are vehemently against it. I would be very surprised if it even comes to a vote in the committee, and as I noted there is no companion bill introduced in the House. I don't think TADA is losing any sleep over this like with the Tesla bill.