Don't want to pay your tolls? Fine.

Austin American Statesman
by Ben Wear

The Los Angeles Times last month had a cautionary tale for those of you who might be thinking of breezing through one of Central Texas' four new tollways without paying and then ignoring the follow-up collection efforts.

Some tollway scofflaws in the Los Angeles area have run up some truly impressive fines. The exemplars, according to the Times, were a Riverside couple that had $300 in unpaid tolls. Doesn't sound so bad, right?

Well, the fines associated with those unpaid tolls were $93,000. The couple ended up settling with the toll road agency for $21,000. Gulp.

Another Riverside woman (no coincidence about Riverside: a toll road runs through it) owes $47,850 in fines on $346 in tolls. And so on.

If you're thinking, "No way!" well, yes way, and it's the same here in Austin. Although the potential tab here would be smaller, smaller does not necessarily mean little.

In California, by state law the fine is limited (if that is the proper verb) to $500 per toll violation.In Texas, the fine ceiling is a modest $100.

But let's say that once a month for a year you take the Loop 1 tollway without paying and then ignore the collection notices. Hey, it worked with those college parking tickets, right?

The toll on that road (assuming you don't continue on Texas 45 North and rack up further charges) is 75 cents. That would be $9 in unpaid tolls for that year. No sweat.

But the fines, if the Texas Department of Transportation's tollway folks take each violation to court, would total $1,200, plus any other court costs that the judge might levy. Read the rest of the article HERE.