Texas Drivers With Unpaid Tolls Get a Break Starting March 1
If you've piled up some unpaid tolls from traveling around Houston, Dallas, or on Texas 49, there's a little financial break coming March 1st thanks to a new state law. But you can still end up in court if you don't pay up!
If you've driven on a toll road without a toll tag and a linked credit card, you may have some outstanding tolls in your name.
Up until this point, each unpaid toll has been subject to a $25 late fee. That could really add up in a hurry. But under a new law passed by the Texas legislature, there's a limit on the administrative fee that a driver in Texas has to pay, and that's $4 a month, regardless of how many unpaid tolls they've racked up, according to the Austin American Statesman.
There's no getting out of the balance of unpaid tolls though. Those will sit on the account until they're paid, and that $4 per month charge will keep hitting the account each month too.
But the Statesman says the huge outstanding bills that have a decade or more of ignored, unpaid tolls from driving on TxDOT roads could be discounted or even forgiven because of the impact of taking away the embedded fees. Call TxDOT to work something out. With so much money out to be collected from unpaid tolls, they might be willing to work with you, since something is better than nothing.
How much money is TxDOT owed, anyway? More than a billion dollars? It's true! It's a $1.47 billion-plus accounts receivable situation, according to the Statesman. And TxDOT could take you to court to get those unpaid tolls. They have to weigh whether it's worth it financially, but if you're convicted of that misdemeanor they can tack $250 on to the amount that you already owe.
Texas Toll Roads are found all over Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, El Paso, and Brownsville, and you can see the complete TxDOT map HERE. The East Texas contribution to the toll road system is of course State Highway Loop 49, and they're extending that now so it will stretch another 6.7 miles from Interstate 20 to US 69, and bypass Lindale.
With more toll roads in the works, now might be a good time to pay up and clean the slate.