The Senate approved an AutoExpreso fine reduction Thursday, cutting the penalty for crossing a toll without enough balance from $15 to $10, but the House must act on the Senate’s amendments before the measure can go to the governor.
House Bill 1352 passed the Senate on Oct. 22 with 23 votes in favor, none against and five senators absent, according to SUTRA, the Legislature’s tracking system. Because the Senate amended the bill, it returns to the House of Representatives, which approved its own version unanimously on Sept. 17, El Nuevo Día reported. As of Friday morning, SUTRA listed no action after the Senate vote.
The measure does not change the toll itself. Drivers who pass through a toll without enough balance still owe it. The bill lowers only the administrative fine for each violation, El Vocero reported.
What the AutoExpreso fine reduction would change
The five-day, or 120-hour, grace period to reload an account stays in place, according to the amended bill text on SUTRA. Once it passes without payment, the text calls for the account holder to receive an electronic notice of the balance owed and the fine. It lists email, text message, automated call and the DTOP’s Cesco Digital app among the authorized digital ways to notify drivers, and El Nuevo Día reported that the Senate’s amendments added the app as a delivery option.
Under the version the Senate committee approved, the Department of Transportation and Public Works (DTOP) and the Highways and Transportation Authority (ACT) would have 120 days after the bill becomes law to amend their regulations, El Nuevo Día reported before the vote.
Why the fine landed at $10, not $5
The bill as filed in August would have cut the fine to $5, and SUTRA’s listing still carries that original title. The ACT and DTOP rejected that version, saying it conflicted with the authority’s fiscal plan, which counts on $29.6 million in fine revenue this year, Metro reported.
The Legislature’s budget office, known as OPAL, later estimated that a $10 fine would bring in about $40.7 million, according to Sen. Héctor Joaquín Sánchez, who chairs the Senate Transportation Committee. As El Nuevo Día described the committee report, about 38% of toll transactions are made without balance, and a $10 fine would still leave the ACT with a surplus of roughly $11.1 million over its certified 2027 budget.
The ACT told the committee it has operated without fine revenue since April 2022 and that this is not sustainable long term, according to the report. Fines stopped that month after a cyberattack on the toll system’s operator, Primera Hora reported. Sánchez told El Nuevo Día he questions counting on that money at all: if every driver pays on time, he said, no fines are collected.
What happens next
SUTRA shows the bill was filed Aug. 11, went to public hearings in the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Aug. 26 and 31, passed the House Sept. 17 and cleared the Senate committee Oct. 16. If the House concurs with the Senate’s changes, the bill goes to Gov. Jenniffer González Colón, who would have to sign it. Until it becomes law, the $15 fine that the ACT reinstated Oct. 19 remains in effect.
Related coverage: Drivers Get Five Days to Reload AutoExpreso Accounts as Users Report Login Errors · AutoExpreso Fines Return Oct. 19 With a Five-Day Window to Reload
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Sources: Puerto Rico Legislative Procedure System (SUTRA), PC 1352; El Nuevo Día (Oct. 22, Oct. 19); Metro; El Vocero; Primera Hora.
Image: AI-generated illustration.
