New Tinting Laws Could Decrease Legal Tint
By: Julie Musgrave
Updated: March 20, 2009
A new bill could mean 'lightening up' on the road. The senate passed a measure Thursday that would require lighter window tinting on all vehicles.
Right now the law requires that 25% of light needs to be able to get into the car. If this new bill is passed, it would increase to 35%. Local tinting business Vernon's Tinting says the demand for 35% barely exists. Under the new measure, windows would not be tinted nearly as much, and the folks at Vernon's say most of their customers want the darkest tint possible. Of course -- a lesser tint would still provide protection from the sun which is why a lot of customers get their windows done in the first place. But going from 25% to 35% is going to cost a lot of local tinting companies. Besides the $1000 fine if they don't follow the new standard, folks at Vernon's say they just bought $16,000 25 % tint -- that's about 150 to 200 dollars per roll, and a big expense to have to discard. Jim Gilliland, tinter at Vernon's: "Now the darkest legal's changing to 35. So we're probably going to have to restock. We just stocked up, what are we supposed to do with all the film that's already been purchased at the current laws. Are they going to grandfather all the film? If the film company don't let us return it, yeah we'll be out of a lot of stock, cause we just stocked up for the year." If passed, this bill would only effect new cars and trucks purchased after September 1st.
