Bill Caption

Fiscal Notes

The bill would have an indeterminate revenue gain to the State Highway Fund. The impact cannot be determined based on the unknown number of permits that would be issued and the unknown fee to be levied for each permit.

The bill would amend the Transportation Code relating to the issuance of permits for the movement of oversized and overweight vehicles by the City of Laredo on certain roads in Webb county. Under the provisions of the bill, the fees collected would be permitted to be used for the operation and maintenance of the roadways and for the City of Laredo's administrative costs, which would be prohibited from exceeding 15% of the fees collected. The bill would require the remaining fees to be distributed between the state and the city based on lane mile calculations between on-system and off-system roadways subject to the bill. The bill would require the state's portion of the fees collected to be submitted to the comptroller for deposit to the credit of the State Highway Fund. The bill provides requirements for the issued permits under the chapter. The bill would authorize the Texas Transportation Commission to require the City of Laredo to execute a surety bond payable to the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) in an amount not less than $500,000 for costs of maintenance for certain roadways described by the bill.

The bill would do one or more of the following: create or recreate a dedicated account in the General Revenue Fund, create or recreate a special or trust fund either with or outside of the Treasury, or create a dedicated revenue source. The fund, account, or revenue dedication included in this bill would be subject to funds consolidation review by the current Legislature.

Based on the information provided by TxDOT, it is assumed any costs or duties associated with implementing the provisions of the bill could be absorbed within existing resources.

The Department of Public Safety indicated the costs associated with the implementing the provisions of the bill could be reasonably absorbed within current resources.

Local Government Impact

There could be an increase in revenue to the local road improvement funding in the local entities; however, the fiscal impact cannot be determined based on the unknown number of permits that would be issued and the unknown fee to be levied for each permit.

Bill Analysis

The fiscal note above provides a sufficient explanation of what this bill would do. 

Vote Recommendation Notes

The author’s statement of intent says, “The differences in weight limit regulations for trucks between Texas and the United Mexican States are requiring some companies operating along the border to unload their shipments before crossing the border and to divide shipments into multiple trucks before driving on international bridges.” As the author’s statement of intent astutely points out, “this is a highly inefficient process that could be avoided by the designation of an overweight truck corridor along parts of the Texas-Mexico border.”   

HB 2861 would allow the City of Laredo to issue permits for overweight vehicles along certain corridors.

This is primarily a local bill concerning an administrative issue. For this reason we are neutral on HB 2861.

The Senate chamber sponsor is Senator Zaffirini.