The Colorado Senate has approved a bill imposing fines of up to $25,000 a day on Chrysler Group if it doesn’t comply with a new state law requiring dealer reinstatement under certain circumstances.  The Senate recently passed the dealer bill by a 35-0 vote.

Even if the legislation passes the House and is signed by Gov. Bill Ritter, however, its fate is unclear because Chrysler asked a U.S. Bankruptcy Court last month to block the dealer reinstatement law, which was enacted in March.  The House has until its May 12 recess to decide whether to pass the Bill and send it to the governor for final approval.

Chrysler Group said it will offer to reinstate 50 closed dealerships within the next few days.  The company also said it is entering settlement talks with an unspecified number of shuttered showrooms.  Letters of intent will be sent to 50 of the 400 rejected dealerships that have applied to get their franchises back through arbitration, Chrysler said in a statement. They “are in locations that offer customer service benefits and will have limited adverse impact on the dealers within our current network,” Chrysler said. No letters of intent have been sent yet, Chrysler said.  In the statement, Chrysler also revealed that it already has awarded contracts and or sales or service agreements to 36 other closed dealerships since July based on individual circumstances.  The disclosures show that Chrysler has reinstated or is trying to reinstate 86 dealerships, or 11 percent of the 789 dealerships that were closed in June as part of its bankruptcy.