California is expensive to live in, so the state's lawmakers have banded together across the aisle to ease the financial burden on the state's most put-upon residents: Car dealership owners. New bipartisan state legislation allows up to 1% of a car's price to be added in fees, up to a max of $500 — a lot more than the existing $85 limit. Thank god, legislators are finally looking out for the little guy.
The bill was spotted by CalMatters, which laid out the massive increase in costs from California's status quo. The outlet also noted a link between the bill and dealer lobbying, which has put millions of dollars into the hands of state legislators over the past few years. Nearly every lawmaker that voted on the bill received cash from the California New Car Dealers Association, and many of them received five figures from the lobby — not for their vote, of course, but simply for the love of the game.
Dealers complained that other California laws raised the cost of doing business, without allowing dealers to foist those costs on to consumers. This echoes a wider trend in dealers across the U.S., which saw average profits fall in 2024 down to a mere $4.5 million per year — how is any hard-working, blue-collar, new-car dealership owner supposed to feed a family on that kind of pay? Even if those dealer owners downsized into modest, 88-foot-long yachts, they'd still be left with only $1.5 million per year to spend on basic necessities like Wagyu beef and Dom Perignon.
The bill has yet to cross Governor Gavin Newsom's desk and become law, should the governor be able to pry himself away from interviewing transphobes on his podcast long enough to sign the piece of paper. With any luck, it'll be made law, and the poor beleaguered dealership magnates of California will finally be able to afford replacement buttons for their children's Burberry coats.