AUSTIN, Texas — A Kyle woman received a $756 bill in the mail after TxTag said it took longer than anticipated to generate statements due to a "system transition."
Lenore Brady saw so many transactions in one bill it made her head spin.
"I checked the mail and found a bill for $756.16, and it said it was past due," Brady said.
She said with no warning, a bill of over $750 in toll fees popped up at her home on April 17, with a payment due date less than a month away.
"When I asked them how this came about with the actual $700 bill at one time, they said that they noticed that some of their customers were just not getting statements and so there were no late fees," Brady said.
She said she wasn't expecting late fees because her family has a TxTag account with autopay.
Her bill has a slew of charges from this year, but there is an $18 "past due" charge that could be from years prior because TxTag never got around to billing her.
At the top of the bill is a notice that reads, "Due to quality control measures after the system transition, it has taken longer than anticipated to generate statements for toll usage. Your new statement may include tolls dating back to May 2021, not previously billed."
"Apparently, some time between now and May 2021, there's potentially $18.02 of tolls that didn't get charged to me," Brady said. "So I don't know how that got calculated. I have no idea whether that's true or not true because there is no breakdown to it."
State Rep. James Talarico wrote a bill that would pause Texas toll payments for a year, using money from the historic budget surplus. But it doesn't address fixing the numerous toll system issues.
"I think we've got to take a comprehensive look at our toll road system because we've heard many complaints from folks in our district and across the state, frankly," Talarico said.
A few proposed laws address cleaning up the toll system, but none have passed committee so far. House Bill 3843 would require the State to study issues with the billing process. That will be heard before the transportation committee on Wednesday.
"I could have probably avoided this if I had looked at it and noticed that, but again, you just have faith in the system," Brady said.
But KVUE viewers have been reporting a broken system for years. While Brady still has to pay up, she was told if she makes regular payments, no late fees will be added to the $756 bill.
In the meantime, she was told to try not to use the toll so she doesn't accrue more bills.
"I can't ask him to not take the fastest route to work," Brady said about her husband. "I mean, he works over 12 hours a day as it is when you factor everything in. I'm like, 'OK, tell him to take a different route so I can figure out sorting out your billing.' I mean, that just seems like a not fair thing to ask him to do because we suddenly got inundated with four months of bills."
KVUE reached out to TxTag for a response on Monday. As of Tuesday night, we were told the agency is working on a statement.