WASHINGTON — If the government takes a majority stake in General Motors, will it end up taking the wheel too? Under a restructuring plan put forth this week by GM, the ailing automaker would give majority ownership to the federal government to stave off bankruptcy. That handoff would amount to an extraordinary partial nationalization of the maker of Buicks, Cadillacs and Chevys that has been an independent company since 1908.
The Obama administration has said it isn’t interested in running an auto company, but with that big of a stake, some analysts say, the government would probably be tempted to push its own policies on issues such as alternative-fuel vehicles and unions. And that could affect the types of cars that roll off GM’s assembly lines.
“The fear here is that a company owned by the government would move toward the do-good results, not the bottom line,” said Gerald Meyers, a University of Michigan business professor and former chief executive of American Motors.
GM’s proposal would give the government more than 50 percent of the automaker’s stock in exchange for forgiving $10 billion in government loans. The United Auto Workers union would end up with a 39 percent stake.
The plan is far from a sure thing. Holders of GM’s $27 billion in unsecured debt have dismissed it as unfair because they would lose most of their investment. And the White House repeated this week that it doesn’t want to own GM or any other auto company.
