LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD
Austin, Texas
 
FISCAL NOTE, 84TH LEGISLATIVE REGULAR SESSION
 
April 27, 2015

TO:
Honorable Joseph Pickett, Chair, House Committee on Transportation
 
FROM:
Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board
 
IN RE:
HB2085 by Muñoz, Jr. (Relating to the administration and oversight of overweight corridors; authorizing a fee.), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted

No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.

This bill would implement recommendations in the review, "Improve the Operations and State Oversight of Overweight Corridors" in the Legislative Budget Board's Government Effectiveness and Efficiency Report submitted to the Eighty-fourth Texas Legislature, 2015.

The bill would authorize the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to issue permits on behalf of overweight corridors and authorize DMV to charge a fee to cover the cost of issuance. The bill would require the Texas Department of Transportation to complete a pavement management plan for each operational overweight corridor and require local entities to consider this plan when setting permit rates.

DMV indicated that permits that would be self-issued through their current internet-based system could be issued within existing resources. For purposes of this fiscal note, it is assumed that if any permits are not self-issued the workload would be absorbed by existing personnel. There could also be an insignificant revenue gain to the General Revenue Fund as a result of an administrative fee assessed on each permit issued by DMV. If DMV chooses to asses a fee to cover the cost of issuing additional permits the revenue would be deposited to the Department of Motor Vehicles Fund. DMV did not indicate that this fee would be charged in the next five years and the Comptroller of Public Accounts reported the fiscal impact of this cannot be determined since it is not known whether fees would be charged or how many permits would be issued. TxDOT stated it could complete pavement management plans for routes currently designated as overweight corridors within existing resources.

Local Government Impact

No significant fiscal implication to units of local government is anticipated.


Source Agencies:
304 Comptroller of Public Accounts, 601 Department of Transportation, 608 Department of Motor Vehicles
LBB Staff:
UP, AG, JJ, MMe, KVe