Transportation agency ups toll costs after a brief pause
Drivers will fork over more for state-maintained toll roads after all, starting Jan. 1.
After pausing a formulaprescribed 9.76 percent increase in state toll road rates in September, the Texas Transportation Commission last week approved a 2.2 percent increase. The amount, officials said, will allow the state to meet the demands of bond holders and the operational costs of the roadways but also save drivers money as costs for practically everything in Texas rise.
“We don’t want to make it cost-prohibitive for folks out there,” Commission Chairman Bruce Bugg said.
By policy, rates for state-controlled tollways increase annually by 2 percent or the state’s consumer price index, whichever is greater, with the toll rounded to the nearest cent. That increase is factored into financing for the toll roads, where the state sells bonds to raise money to build the road
and maintain it, then pays them off with the revenues.
The 2.2 percent increase will allow the state to meet those obligations but not follow the consumer price index calculation that would have led to the nearly 10 percent jump in tolls.
“It is our view the action for 2023 would not impair our credit at all,” said Benjamin
Asher, finance director for the Texas Department of Transportation.
TXDOT owns and manages toll roads in various metro areas, notably Austin where it controls the tolled portion of Texas 130 ringing the metro area, and Texas 45 toll lanes north of Pflugerville; in Dallas,
it oversees more than 60 miles of managed lanes within Interstates 30, 35 and 635. Dallas-area toll rates, however, are set differently. In the Houston area, the increase affects the Grand Parkway and the tollway along Texas 249 from Pinehurst northwest to Todd Mission.
Other state-sanctioned projects, such as Texas 130 south of the Austin area to Seguin and the Texas 288 lanes in Harris County are operated by private companies that have concession agreements with the state that determine the rules for setting rates.
Last year, officials approved a 6 percent increase on the statemaintained tollways but did so lamenting the effect it would have on toll road use and drivers’ wallets.
Citing the need to maintain the commission’s credit rating and the cash to operate the tollways, members said they do not want drivers to expect regular price breaks.
“This is not something we want to be in the practice of doing,” commission member Alvin New said.
He added that costs for concrete and maintenance continue to climb and that by avoiding the 9.76 percent increase, the state is absorbing a cost that will continue into future years. Now, no matter how prices rise in the future, toll rates will always trail by not factoring that increase, New said.
“I just want to make sure we think that through,” he said.