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According to Texas Transportation Code Section 502.401, Subchapter H, Optional Fees, “The Commissioners Court of a county by order may impose an additional fee, not to exceed $10, for registering a vehicle in the county.” The $10 maximum was established in 1991.
County Impact
Grimes County collects the $10 fee, which is deposited into the county’s Road & Bridge Fund as required by statute, said Grimes County Commissioner David Tullos.
Recent collection totals are as follows:
- FY 2022 – $303,215
- FY 2023 – $308,204
- FY 2024 – $309,150
- FY 2025 – $361,810
- FY 2026 (to date) – $243,210
“The cost of road materials continues to rise, and the volatility in the cost of fuel also contributes to the increasing expense of maintaining our county roads,” Tullos stated. “An increase in the fee collection rate would be a benefit to rural counties across Texas, as would an increase in the county allocation of the fuel tax collected by the state.” (See related Resolution Spotlight, Support for County Road Grant Funds, https://bit.ly/road-funds.”)
In a transportation funding analysis, TxDOT noted that higher construction costs and continued population growth have increased the cost of planning, building, and maintaining highway infrastructure. Rising material and labor costs, evidenced by a 66.85 percent increase in the Highway Cost Index (HCI) from August 2021 to August 2025, are creating daily challenges for the construction industry and TxDOT.
“As TxDOT invests in transportation solutions to respond to the state’s needs, economic uncertainty brings challenges in the form of inflation and lower estimated revenues,” the report stated.
County Commissioners are experiencing the same at the county level.
“Road materials have gone up drastically,” reported Cherokee County Commissioner Kelly Traylor. Cherokee County, which collects the $10 fee, encompasses over 1,000 miles of county roads. The money collected is spread across four precincts.
“We are fighting an uphill battle on our roads because costs are going up but our revenue source is decreasing because of inflation,” Traylor explained. The road budget must cover materials, labor, equipment, repair, maintenance, and replacement costs for roads, bridges, vehicles, culverts, etc.
Doubling the fee would be a tremendous help to Cherokee County, Traylor said, and is a fair revenue source as it is being paid by those who are using the roads every day.
Atascosa County also collects the $10, reported County Commissioner Mark Gillespie.
“We support the increase of the fee to $20 and could raise the fee gradually over time if necessary,” Gillespie stated.
“The cost of road materials, equipment, and labor to maintain rural county roads has doubled,” he emphasized, “and our rural population has all together outgrown itself and our roads.”
Members of Commissioners Courts worked with the CJCAT to develop the following resolution:
Optional County Road and Bridge Fee
WHEREAS, the current maximum county optional road and bridge fee has been frozen at $10 since 1991; and
WHEREAS, the cost of construction and maintenance of the county road system has increased tremendously in recent years; and
WHEREAS, as the population of Texas continues to grow, the need for efficient county transportation systems will increase;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the County Judges and Commissioners Association of Texas requests that the maximum county optional road and bridge fee be raised to $20 per vehicle.