BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 1898

By: Pickett

Transportation

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Currently, a county can impose an optional vehicle registration fee of not more than $10 to help pay for road and bridge projects in the county.  H.B. 1898 seeks to allow a municipality that borders the United Mexican States and has a population of 500,000 or more to create a similar, optional, vehicle registration fee to help finance road and bridge projects in the municipality. 

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that rulemaking authority is expressly granted to the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles in SECTION 4 of this bill.

ANALYSIS

H.B. 1898 amends the Transportation Code to authorize the governing body of a municipality that borders the United Mexican States and has a population of 500,000 or more, by order, to call an election on the issue of imposing an additional fee for registering a vehicle at an address in the municipality. The bill requires the election to be held on a uniform election date. The bill imposes the fee if a majority of the votes cast at the election approve the imposition of the fee. The bill authorizes the fee to take effect only on January 1 of a year. The bill requires the municipality to notify the county in which it is located and the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles (TxDMV) not later than September 1 of the year preceding the year in which the fee takes effect. The bill prohibits the fee from exceeding the amount of the fee imposed by the county in which the vehicle is registered under provisions of law relating to an optional county fee for a road and bridge fund. The bill requires an order calling the election to list the amount of the additional fee to be imposed and list and generally describe the projects to be funded with the additional fee. The bill sets out the required ballot language. The bill authorizes a vehicle that may be registered without payment of a registration fee to be registered without payment of the additional fee. The bill requires the county assessor-collector of a county containing a municipality imposing the fee to collect the additional fee for a vehicle when other registration fees are collected. The bill requires the county assessor-collector to distribute the fees to the municipal treasurer in the manner provided by provisions of law relating to the disposition of the optional county road and bridge fee. The bill authorizes the municipality to use the fee revenue only for road or bridge projects in the municipality. The bill requires TxDMV to collect the additional fee on a vehicle that is owned by a resident of a municipality imposing the fee and that, under law, must be registered directly with TxDMV. The bill requires TxDMV to send all fees collected for a municipality to the municipal treasurer to be used as provided by the bill's provisions. The bill requires TxDMV to adopt rules and develop forms necessary to administer registration by mail for a vehicle being registered in a county containing a municipality imposing the fee. The bill makes its provisions inapplicable to an all-terrain vehicle or a recreational off-highway vehicle.  The bill adds a fee imposed under the bill's provisions to the fees governed by the law relating to the disposition of a local road and bridge fee and the fees that a person registering a semitrailer must pay, if applicable.  The bill exempts a vehicle registered under provisions of law relating to annual permits for foreign commercial vehicles from the fee required by the bill's provisions.  The bill makes conforming changes.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2011.