Cost to renew car registration is going up
DMV green-lights $4.75 fee for registrations starting next year
Texas Department of Motor Vehicles officials approve a $4.75 processing and handling fee for all vehicle registration renewals, as well as adjusting other charges.
Don’t be shocked if your automobile registration sticker costs a little more next year.
Texas Department of Motor Vehicles officials approved a $4.75 processing and handling fee for all vehicle registration renewals, as well as adjusting other charges. When it takes effect on Jan. 1, the price of walk-in, by-mail and renewals at local grocery stores will increase to $55.50, while online renewals will cost $54.50.
Compared to current prices, the decision means renewals done online will cost less, while all the other processes increase in cost, either $0.75 for walk-ins or $3.75 for bymail and grocery store transactions. Houston-area counties also charge additional fees, typically $11.50, related to air quality emissions in the region.
Tax-assessor collectors and some lawmakers opposed the plan, either because of a handful of mostly procedural changes that could affect how much local tax offices receive, as well as general opposition to raising vehicle costs.
“While the Texas DMV board has many justifications for today’s fee increase, some more sound than others, the end result for Texas drivers remains unacceptable,” state Sen. Don Huffines, R-Dallas, said Monday in a statement. “Owning and driving a vehicle is now more costly for most Texas drivers, and that’s the wrong direction for state government to go.”
Lawmakers in 2013 gave the newly established DMV the ability to assess a processing handling fee on registrations in order to wean the agency from relying on funding from the State Highway Fund. In order to have the money to operate vehicle registrations, DMV executive director Whitney Brewster said the fee approval was necessary, which board members emphasized in approving the fee.
“We have to fund this agency,” said Guillermo “Memo” Treviño.
After officials recalculated the fee following opposition that rose in May, DMV officials amended the proposal for a $4.75 fee, down from $5.