Senate Bill 1175 Passes

 

As many of you know, Greg Dineen & Associates was approached to help the racing industry when the California Highway Patrol (CHP) decided to revoke it’s withholding of enforcement on over-length trailers without any warning to the racing industry. The CHP then showed up at a race and cited all of the teams (and delayed the start of the race for the fans).

The CHP was supported in this decision by Caltrans and neither would back down even though the racing industry was threatening to leave California permanently. If the racing industry left the state, it would result in $1 billion in lost annual revenues to California’s economy. As we know, sometimes government does not seem to care much about how its decisions impact our members’ businesses.

We approached a number of state senators and assembly members and none of them were interested in resolving this situation except for Senator Mimi Walters (R-Orange County).

Senator Walters cares about the business community. We worked with Senator Walters’ office to develop State Senate Bill 1175 which would allow over-length trailers for the racing car industry. The CHP and Caltrans were not supportive of this bill but they couldn’t stop it.

The happy end to this story is that SB 1175 passed with unanimous support in both the Senate and Assembly. It was sent to Governor Brown on September 2nd and we are hopeful he will sign it, rather than infuriate millions of racing fans.