Breakfast: Braun Signs Dealer Franchise Bill into Law – RVBusiness – Breaking RV Industry News
ELKHART, Ind. – Warmly received by the audience as “one of their own” — he elected to turn down a career on Wall Street to return to his home state of Indiana where he eventually built a small farm equipment manufacturer called Meyer Body Co. into powerhouse Meyer Distributing – Indiana Gov. Mike Braun took to the stage and reflected on his own travails as a struggling entrepreneur before touching upon state and national concerns.
“I always cite Elkhart as being, per capita, one of the two most entrepreneurial places in the state,” said the Republican lawmaker and Jasper, Ind., native. “And along with being entrepreneurial, you’ve got to have some guts to get through things that the markets are going to throw at you.”
“I was (in Washington D.C. as a U.S. Senator) for six years and I make everything a joyful experience once I’m doing it — but damn, that was hard to do,” he reflected. “You look now on all the things that need to be done and there’s one half on the other side of the aisle that wants more of it, wants to double down on it. Even in my own party, we’ve enabled it to happen. It started way back in the Eighties when Ronald Reagan cut taxes but didn’t think we needed to do anything with spending. It was ‘chump change,’ then in the tens and hundreds of millions. But it quickly climbed to the tens and hundreds of billions and now you see everything’s denominated in trillions (of dollars). They (now) run a $2- to $2.5 trillion annual deficit.
“Imagine in your own business if you’re doing a million dollars (in sales) and you’re losing $300,000,” he added. “Well, you wouldn’t get your line of credit renewed. We need to make you folks believe in term limits and in a balanced budget amendment. Until we get it, you’re probably going to have to stay patient — because this is the opening act.”
Segueing into a topic that has potentially tough ramifications for the RV industry — tariffs — Braun noted that “if we don’t ‘right-size’ those relationships, we’re going to keep exporting our own resources. But we’ll be okay. We’re resilient. I know a lot of the industry has got some of their supply chain (overseas). My prediction is the first bilateral arrangement with either India, Japan or South Korea will cascade — the market’s already anticipating it. It’s going to be a wrestling match with China. I don’t have time to go into that, (but) they need us more than we need them. They’re two thirds the size of our economy. Their business partner, Russia, has an economy that is only slightly larger than that of Florida.
“We hold the cards,” he noted, “but do we have the willpower to do it as a hedge?”
Braun also outlined steps he’s taken to make Indiana more accommodating to business — “When you have complaints that your own state isn’t working well, you can get ahold of me our (one of) eight entrepreneurial secretaries running eight policy silos” — before ending his talk with a ceremonial signing of Senate Enrolled Act 484.
“The law creates regulatory clarity that an industry as important as yours deserves,” he pointed out, “and will guarantee fair treatment for manufacturers and dealers.”
