North Dakota Legislators Want Their Own Bailout For The Auto Industry

What a stupid idea:

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) North Dakota may be offering Detroit its own bailout.
A group of six North Dakota lawmakers has introduced legislation to exempt new Ford, Chrysler and General Motors vehicles from North Dakota’s sales tax and motor vehicle excise tax.
The tax break would apply until June 30, 2010, to buyers of any new vehicles made by those companies. New vehicle leases would also get the tax break. . . .
Minot Rep. Lisa Wolf is the principal sponsor of the bill. Its first hearing in the North Dakota House has not been scheduled.
The bill is HB1539.

Here’s a link to the bill.
I’m normally all for tax breaks, but this doesn’t make any sense.
First, why just domestic automakers? The domestic auto industry has, though ineptness and over sized labor expenses foisted on them by Big Labor, staggered its way into insolvency and has thrown itself on the mercy of the American taxpayers. And expense those taxpayers can ill-afford to bear. The foreign auto industry, on the other hand, has had to take action to protect itself from our economic downturn but have not – and undoubtedly will not – be demanding a big, fat handout from the taxpayers.
So given all that, we’re going to reward domestic automakers? And thus punish foreign automakers? What about all the North Dakotans who work at dealerships that sell foreign made cars? Do they deserve to be punished? Do they deserve to see their competitors benefit from favoritism? Of course not.
If I were a car salesman or a mechanic or any other employee of a dealership selling foreign cars in North Dakota I’d be pretty irate about this.
Second, it’s funny to see these liberals (Rep. Lisa Wolf is a Democrat, but she’s unfortunately joined by Republicans Blair Thoreson and Duane DeKrey in sponsoring this) admit that tax breaks help boost sales and thus the economy, but the only time they ever seem to favor tax relief is when it’s narrowly targeted and temporary. That’s bogus. Given that the entire country is entering an economic downturn, and that said downturn is likely to catch up with North Dakota eventually, why not give broad tax relief on everything? Why not give North Dakotans more of their money back and let them decide whether or not to spend it on a new car. Or some new clothes. Or what have you.
Or, at the very least, why not give tax relief on all new auto purchases? At least that would be fair, and wouldn’t be rewarding certain companies for incompetence.