Texas toll roads generally have electronic toll collection, meaning that most customers (usually about two-thirds) have toll tags on their vehicles and thus pay tolls more or less instantly through the tag. The authority said people owing back tolls may call 88 or go to to initiate a discussion about a reduction. The authority, he said, does negotiate with those with tolls and fees owed, requiring that, as part of any discount offered, the person get an electronic toll tag. As far as I’m concerned, there won’t be any amnesty now or in the future. “But beyond that, we don’t believe that rewarding toll-lifters is a good policy. “We don’t have a backstop, any other sort of funds to draw on,” Heiligenstein said. None of it will be forgiven, he said, in part because the authority, unlike TxDOT, does not have access to tax revenue and must rely only on toll revenue. Mike Heiligenstein, executive director of the authority, said his agency has a backlog of about $35 million in unpaid tolls and $135 million in late fees. The mobility authority, which opened the first of its four tollways in March 2007, likewise has a considerable backlog of unpaid tolls and fees, and officials said their call center was clogged Thursday with people who had seen media reports about the TxDOT decision and mistakenly thought it applied to all Austin-area tollways. It does not cover such charges on the mobility authority’s tollways of MoPac south of Parmer Lane, U.S. In Central Texas, the TxDOT action covers toll fines and fees on Texas 130 (including the privately run section south of Mustang Ridge), Texas 45 North, Texas 45 Southeast and MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1) north of Parmer Lane. It does not affect any tolls, fees or fines that drivers racked up driving on tollways operated by the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority or other local toll agencies in Dallas, Houston, East Texas, El Paso or the Rio Grande Valley. RELATED: The backlog of unpaid Texas tollsīass’ move, along with the new state law regarding fees and fines, applies only to tolls incurred on TxDOT-operated roads. But if you look at the next invoice you get, it should not have your fees and fines in it.” “For the system to go through and clear this out, it may take awhile,” Bass told the American-Statesman. TxDOT officials said Thursday that about $147 million in tolls remain in arrears, from about 2.2 million drivers.īass said customers owing fees and fines might not be able to see the change immediately online. The decision, made by TxDOT Executive Director James Bass in recent weeks and announced Wednesday at a House Transportation Committee, does not affect the underlying tolls owed by those drivers. The Texas Department of Transportation will waive more than $1.3 billion in fines and late fees owed by those who drove on its toll roads since 2007, agency officials say, a response to a cap in such fees imposed last year by the Legislature.
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