Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for HB718, As Passed 2nd House : an impact of $0 through the biennium ending August 31, 2025.

The bill would amend Transportation Code, Chapter 503, to require a motor vehicle dealer to issue metal license plates obtained from the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles (TxDMV) for vehicles sold by the dealer and eliminate the issuance of temporary paper buyer's tags. The bill would require metal license plates to be issued instead of the current paper One-­Trip and 30­-Day permits and temporary dealer's and converter's tags. The bill would establish a onetime fee of $10 for issuance of a dealer's temporary license plate. The bill would require TxDMV to ensure that a dealer may obtain in advance a sufficient amount of license plates to continue selling vehicles without an unreasonable disruption of business due to the unavailability of license plates. The bill would require TxDMV to establish rules to set the maximum number of license plates that a dealer may obtain and to monitor the number of license plates obtained by the dealer. The bill would amend Transportation Code, Section 504.901, to specify that license plates for a motor vehicle sold to a licensed dealer are to be assigned to a purchaser of the motor vehicle at retail sale.

The bill would authorize TxDMV to adopt rules necessary to implement or administer the changes in law made by the bill. The bill would require rules to be adopted not later than December 1, 2024. This provision would take effect on September 1, 2023.

Except as otherwise specified, the bill would take effect on July 1, 2025.

Provisions of the bill relating to the issuance of dealer's temporary license plates would take effect on July 1, 2025. Based on the information and analysis provided by TxDMV, it is assumed 487,200 dealer's temporary license plates would be issued on July 1, 2025, for a fee of $10 each, resulting in a revenue gain of $4,872,000 to the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles Fund 0010 in fiscal year 2025.

Based on the information and analysis provided by TxDMV, it is assumed the department would incur a one-time increase in general issue license plate manufacturing costs of $2,288,500 in fiscal year 2024 (701,944 at $3.26 per plate) and $134,000 for shipping costs (approximately $0.19 per plate) in fiscal year 2025 to ensure a sufficient amount of plates would be available to motor vehicle dealers by the effective date of July 1, 2025; and a one-­time increase in metal Dealer license plate manufacturing costs of $234,900 (135,000 plates at $1.74 per plate) and an initial manufacturing cost of $812,326 for metal One­-Trip and 30-­Day permit metal plates (466,854 plates at $1.74 per plate). TxDMV would also incur one-­time Registration and Titling System programming costs and setup costs of $18,714 in fiscal year 2024 for creation of the new One­-Trip/30-­Day, Dealer Demonstration, and Out­-of-­State Buyer metal plates. Afterwards, the department anticipates its standard operations for license plate manufacturing would be sufficient to maintain the necessary license plate inventory for the counties and motor vehicle dealers. 

Based on the information provided by TxDMV, it is assumed the creation of a dealer­-issued license plate inventory management system would be required to ensure appropriate controls over the distribution and monitoring of license plates obtained by motor vehicle dealers. Based on the TxDMV's known costs of similar systems, the department estimates one-­time system implementation costs of $15.6 million in fiscal year 2024 and ongoing annual maintenance costs of $5.0 million in each fiscal year thereafter. Based on the analysis provided by TxDMV, it is assumed the department would require 9.0 additional full­time equivalent (FTE) positions in fiscal year 2024 to support system development, architecture, data management, quality assurance and testing (2.0 Programmer III at $72,789 annual salary for each; 1.0 Programmer V at $77,862 annual salary; 1.0 Database Administrator III at $77,862 annual salary; and 1.0 Systems Analyst V at $77,862 annual salary); and 4.0 additional FTEs to manage user access and security (3.0 Systems Support Specialist III at $47,388 annual salary each; 1.0 Systems Analyst IV at $68,047 annual salary).

Based on the analysis provided by TxDMV, it is assumed the department would require 5.0 Compliance Analyst I FTEs in fiscal year 2024 and an additional 15.0 positions in fiscal year 2025 ($51,985 annual salary each), 2.0 Compliance Analyst III positions ($68,047 annual salary each), 1.0 Compliance Analyst IV ($77,862 annual salary); and, beginning in fiscal year 2025, 4.0 Investigator IV positions ($51,985 annual salary each), 1.0 Investigator VI position ($68,047 annual salary), and 2.0 Program Specialist I positions ($47,688 annual salary each) to support audits of inventory controls and security measures in place for license plate inventory storage at over 20,000 county tax offices and vehicle dealer locations across the state, one additional Administrative Assistant III FTE ($37,914 annual salary) to support the additional program staff, and 27 additional fleet vehicles ($30,000 each or $810,000 in fiscal year 2025). Annual additional fleet maintenance costs are estimated to be $24,000 beginning in fiscal year 2025. 

Estimated costs for the additional 46.0 FTE positions identified above include the following: salaries and wages costs of $1.3 million in fiscal year 2024 (19.0 FTEs) and $2.7 million per year in following fiscal years (46.0 FTEs); employee benefits costs of $380,835 in fiscal year 2024 and $808,070 each fiscal year thereafter (30.33 percent of salary cost); agency payroll contribution costs for retirement and group insurance of $18,834 in fiscal year 2024 and $39,964 each fiscal year thereafter (1.5 percent of salary cost); one-­time office furniture and computer equipment costs of $172,900 in fiscal year 2024 and $245,700 in fiscal year 2025 and $75,700 in fiscal year 2028 for replacement/refresh of computer equipment; and $74,442 in fiscal year 2024, $184,028 in fiscal year 2025, and $189,428 each fiscal year thereafter for supplies, travel, training, telecommunications, and other recurring operating expenses.

This analysis assumes all costs to TxDOT would be paid from the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles Fund 0010.