| TO: | Honorable Tommy Williams, Chair, Senate Committee on Transportation & Homeland Security |
| FROM: | John S O'Brien, Director, Legislative Budget Board |
| IN RE: | HB1291 by Hochberg (Relating to the payment of tolls for highway toll projects.), As Engrossed |
The bill would amend the Transportation Code to require a toll project entity to waive any fees and penalties for failure to pay a toll if a vehicle has a properly installed, registered transponder which failed to register the toll due to equipment error. The toll project entity would be authorized to send a notice to the registered owner to replace the transponder, and after a reasonable opportunity to replace the transponder, the toll entity would not be required to waive subsequent fees or penalties.
A toll project entity would be required to adopt a rule or order regarding the exceptions for the failure or refusal to pay a toll. A toll project entity would be prohibited from penalizing a driver for using a transponder in or on a motor vehicle to which the transponder was not previously registered unless the vehicle is of a different toll classification.
The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) reported that in relation to the use of a transponder in another vehicle, the department's TxTag transponder cannot be removed and used in another vehicle since removal disables the device. TxDOT uses a video billing process; technically there are not any lanes that are limited to transponder-only payment. Based on the analysis of TxDOT, no significant fiscal implication is anticipated.
| Source Agencies: | 601 Department of Transportation
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| LBB Staff: | JOB, KJG, TP
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