Paid For Means Paid For: Texas Bill Would End Tolls at Payoff

They told you the toll was to pay for the road. So what happens when the road is paid for? One new bill says the toll comes off. For good.

Plain English summary

On November 10, 2026, State Rep. Shaheen filed House Bill 1042. The caption reads: "Relating to the cessation of tolls by toll project entities in certain circumstances." (FACT, HB 1042 bill history)

The bill adds a new subchapter to Chapter 372 of the Transportation Code. Under it, a toll project "must be maintained without tolls" once two things are true. The cost to buy and build the road has been paid. And the bonds and interest backed by that road's tolls have been paid off, or enough money has been set aside in trust to pay them to maturity. (FACT, HB 1042 introduced text, Sec. 1, new Sec. 372.152(a))

The toll agency also could not rewrite its financing deals to push that date further out. (FACT, new Sec. 372.152(b))

Once the toll comes off, the road goes one of three ways. It joins the state highway system if the Legislative Budget Board says the state has the money to run it. Or a county can ask to take it over, with Budget Board approval. If neither happens, the agency that runs it has to keep running it, toll free. (FACT, new Sec. 372.152(c))

Who this covers

The bill applies to any "toll project entity." State law already defines that term to include TxDOT, regional tollway authorities, regional mobility authorities, and counties that run toll roads. (FACT, Transportation Code Sec. 372.001)

That reaches home. The North East Texas Regional Mobility Authority runs Toll 49 around Tyler and is planning more of it. (DOCUMENTED INFERENCE, NET RMA Toll 49 overview)

The catch you need to read

There is an exception, and it matters.

A toll agency can keep collecting tolls past the payoff date if only some segments of a project are paid off, and the agency signs a deal to build more segments at least 30 days before the toll is supposed to end. The toll then comes off only when every one of those added segments is built and paid for. (FACT, new Sec. 372.153)

Read that again. A road that keeps growing can keep tolling.

For a project built in segments, like Toll 49, that door is wide open. (DOCUMENTED INFERENCE)

What else it does

The bill repeals Sections 284.008(c) and (d) of the Transportation Code. Right now (c) already says certain county toll projects go into the state system toll free once the bonds are paid. Subsection (d) lets a county ask the state to keep the project off the state system and maintain it itself. (FACT, Transportation Code Sec. 284.008; HB 1042 Sec. 3)

It orders TxDOT and the Legislative Budget Board to produce a report by September 1, 2028, listing every toll road in Texas, the date each would have to go toll free, and what it would cost the state to maintain them. (FACT, HB 1042 Sec. 4)

It takes effect immediately with a two-thirds vote in each chamber. Otherwise, September 1, 2027. (FACT, HB 1042 Sec. 5)

This has been filed before

Same author. Same caption. Same draft number from the Legislative Council, 10298. In 2025 it was House Bill 2323. It was left pending in subcommittee on March 31, 2025. It never got a vote. (FACT, HB 2323 (89R) bill history)

Why it matters

A toll sold as temporary has a way of becoming permanent.

The bonds get paid. Then new bonds get issued. Then a new segment gets added. And the driver who was told "this pays for the road" is still paying, years after the road was paid for.

East Texans drive. To work, to church, to the ball field. Every dollar at a toll gantry is a dollar out of a family budget.

What Ryan says

RYAN STATEMENT: A promise with a payoff date should have a payoff date.

If you told the people the toll pays for the road, then when the road is paid, take the toll down. That is not radical. That is keeping your word.

I like this bill. I want it tighter.

That segment exception is the whole ballgame. If an agency can keep a toll alive just by signing a contract for one more piece of road, then the payoff date is a suggestion, not a rule. Close that door or put a hard limit on it.

And I want to see the TxDOT list before anybody tells me what it costs. Show me every toll road. Show me every payoff date. Show me the maintenance number. Then let the people decide.

What this does not prove

It does not prove any toll road in Texas comes off soon. The bill only applies once bonds are paid or fully set aside.

It does not prove the bill will pass. The same bill died in subcommittee last session.

It does not prove what it would cost the state to maintain former toll roads. That is what the study is for.

It does not prove Toll 49 would go toll free. The segment exception could keep it tolled as long as segments keep getting added.

What it does prove

A filed bill would make "paid off means toll free" the rule across Texas toll agencies.

It would stop agencies from refinancing their way past that date.

It leaves a real exception for roads still adding segments.

The bottom line

Paid for means paid for.

Get this bill a hearing. Get it a vote. Tighten the segment loophole. And put the toll road list on the table.

This is the record.

Do not threaten anyone. Do not harass anyone. Do not contact anyone in my name. Read it. Share it. Send receipts, evidence, witnesses. Put eyes on the record.