FISCAL NOTE
Date Requested: March 04, 2026
Time Requested: 01:28 PM |
| Agency: |
Parkways Authority, WV |
|---|
| CBD Number: |
Version: |
Bill Number: |
Resolution Number: |
| 1901 |
Comm. Sub. Eng. |
HB4563 |
|
|---|
| CBD Subject: |
Roads and Transportation |
|---|
|
FUND(S):
Toll Road Revenues
Sources of Revenue:
Other Fund Toll Road Revenues
Legislation creates:
Fiscal Note Summary
Effect this measure will have on costs and revenues of state government.
Summarize in a clear and concise manner what impact this measure will have on costs and revenues of state government.
This bill does not affect the general revenue of the State of West Virginia. The West Virginia Turnpike is operated and maintained by the West Virginia Parkways Authority (the “Authority”) with Turnpike toll revenues paid by the users of the highway. Thus, no State tax or general revenue dollars are used in the maintenance or operation of the Turnpike or in paying debt service on Turnpike bonds issued by the Authority.
Fiscal Note Detail
| Effect of Proposal |
Fiscal Year |
2026
Increase/Decrease
(use"-") |
2027
Increase/Decrease
(use"-") |
Fiscal Year
(Upon Full
Implementation) |
| 1. Estmated Total Cost |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Personal Services |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Current Expenses |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Repairs and Alterations |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Assets |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Other |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| 2. Estimated Total Revenues |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Explanation of above estimates (including long-range effect):
Please explain increases and decreases in personal services, current expenses, repairs and alterations, assets, other costs and revenues, including assumptions and data sources and delineation between start-up and ongoing costs. Please also include a long-range schedule of costs and revenues if fiscal impact is expected to vary in future years.
Please explain increases and decreases in personal services, current expenses, repairs and alterations, assets, other costs and revenues, including assumptions and data sources and delineation between start-up and ongoing costs. Please also include a long-range schedule of costs and revenue if fiscal impact is expected to vary in future years.
See Fiscal Note Summary above for information regarding the fiscal impact of this bill on the State of West Virginia.
Memorandum
Please identify any areas of vagueness, technical defects, reasons a bill would not have a fiscal impact, and/or any special issues not captured elsewhere on this form.
The committee substitute for House Bill 4563 raises significant operational and financial concerns for the West Virginia Parkways Authority. The bill would require E ZPass transponders to be transferable among up to five vehicles owned by the same licensed driver, impacting both personal and commercial accounts and forcing revisions to existing account agreements. This change conflicts with current personal account rules, which limit each transponder to a single Class 1 vehicle and rely on administrative penalties to prevent sharing.
The Authority currently relies on the terms outlined in the Personal Account Agreement to enforce any improper sharing of transponders among vehicles. However, the Authority only has the capacity to enforce those terms on a case-by-case basis. The Authority believes that implementing procedures to review license plate images on all transponder transactions and comparing those images to the plates on file with personal accounts would be cost prohibitive to the program. Under the provisions of the proposed legislation, the Authority believes a process would have to be implemented in which plates are cross-referenced to registered vehicles on transponders’ accounts.
A human review process is currently in place to prevent Turnpike customers from receiving a high rate of erroneous toll bills in the mail. If the Authority were to implement the provisions of the proposed legislation without additional human-review of plate images, approximately 25% of transponder account holders would receive a bill in the mail due to an unreliable plate read.
To enforce the requirements of the bill, the Authority believes that a significant number of additional license plate image reviews would need to be completed on E ZPass transactions—something currently done only when a transponder read fails or a vehicle’s characteristics don’t match its registered class. Current image reviews by the Authority’s customer service team costs an average of $1.13 per image. Additionally, the Authority recorded approximately 7.8 million in single-fee E-ZPass transactions last year. Using this data, the Authority estimates maximum additional personnel costs of approximately $8.8 million annually to implement full-scale plate reviews on E-ZPass transponder transactions.
The Authority’s billing system does not currently match plate information to accounts for transponder reads; therefore, additional programming costs of approximately $500,000 are estimated to set up that process. The Authority anticipates a reduction in single-fee discount program revenue of conservatively $1,700,000, annually. This estimate is based on the projection that the average single-fee discount program E-ZPass account holder has two or more vehicles that would take advantage of the personal cost savings afforded to them under this bill. In total, the Authority anticipates roughly $11 million maximum in yearly costs. Personnel costs would come down over time as confidence is built in the automated plate imaging software. Currently, no tolling agency in the United States relies fully on automated plate imaging (without some level of human review) for implementation of their electronic tolling programs.
The terms, “EZ Passes” and “EZ Pass program,” as contained within the proposed legislation are not defined and are ambiguous. The Authority operates personal and commercial E-ZPass programs. Without clarification within the bill, the Authority does not know whether this bill is intended to impact both personal and commercial accounts. Under the current terms of commercial account agreements, there is no limit to the number of vehicles within the same classification that the transponder may be used. Under the provisions of this bill, the Authority may have to begin limiting the transferability of commercial E-ZPass transponders to only five (5) vehicles of the same classification.
The bill also creates potential administrative challenges, including verifying vehicle ownership across states. Because the proposed legislation relies largely on driver honesty and limits the Authority’s enforcement tools, it increases the risk of fraud and abuse within the E ZPass program.
Person submitting Fiscal Note: Robin Shamblin
Email Address: rshamblin@wvturnpike.com