That little blue sticker on vehicle windshields would cost most Texans more next year, under a state plan that's caused strong pushback from county tax officials as a misguided revenue grab.

The Texas Department of Motor Vehicles wants to replace all the various fees attached to an automobile registration renewal with a $5 processing and handling charge, then offer a $1.25 discount to online customers to increase motor vehicles department revenue and encourage online renewals, executive director Whitney Brewster said. The state portion of walk-in renewals at county offices and local groceries that also do vehicle registrations would increase to $55.75 along with mail-in renewals. Online registrations, meanwhile, would decrease by 25 cents to $54.50, plus county costs.

"In my opinion, this is nothing more than a money grab," Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Mike Sullivan said. "This will be done on the backs of the taxpayers."

He estimated the cost to Harris County vehicle owners would be $11 million. About 88 percent of renewals in the county happen in person, Sullivan said, mostly at grocery stores and county offices.

"We are trying to uniform the cost and motivate and move people who are registering to the most efficient form," said Rep. Joe Pickett, D-El Paso, chairman of the Texas House Transportation Committee. Also, for lawmakers auto registration renewals are an easy target because the cost hasn't increased in more than 10 years.

The committee discussed the proposal Wednesday in Austin. The motor vehicles department board - which has final say after the legislature in 2013 gave the agency authority to set processing rates - is scheduled to meet June 27.

Sullivan and other county tax assessor-collectors - the officials on the front line of handling vehicle registrations and fielding complaints - oppose the changes, citing both the effect on their offices and taxpayers.

The proposal changes how much money county tax assessor-collector offices receive for processing registrations. They will receive 40 cents more for each in-person renewal, $2.30, but less for mail and online registrations. Mail and online under the current system nets assessors $2.90 per renewal. The new processing and handling fee drops that to $2.30 for mail and 25 cents for online.

"There is a fluctuation here that needs to be addressed," Bexar County Tax Assessor-Collector Albert Uresti said, noting the upheaval the change would create in some tax office staffing. Grocers that offer renewal services would continue to collect $1 on every transaction.

Right now, the start charges $50.75 as a base for auto registration renewal, and $1 for an automation fee for all vehicle registrations. Counties also assess various fees, such as $11.50 in Harris County. Those who mail in, renew at a grocery or pay online also pay other fees, increasing the fee for postal and grocery renewals to $52.75 plus county costs, and $54.75 plus county costs for online.

A random sampling of Houston drivers reacted to the plan with annoyance but acceptance.

"They are going to get their money'" said Don Mix, 50, of government agencies. "I don't know if they need it, I'm not sure. But they'll get it. Always have."

Revenue loss

During the hearing, Brewster acknowledged the change is about increasing revenue coming to the motor vehicles department, which has struggled to find consistent funding since the legislature split it from the Texas Department of Transportation in 2009. A special TxDMV fund was created in 2013 specifically to bank some of the fees the agency collects, to be used for its operations. Then lawmakers failed to include the fund in the 2013 budget bill, effectively abolishing it.

The fund was reinstated in the 2015 legislative session, effective Sept. 1, 2016. Without an increase in money collected from auto registrations, however, Brewster said the agency will not have enough money over the 2018-19 state budget.

"Without the establishment of the processing and handling fee, we are now looking at a potential deficit of $70 million," she said.

TxDMV prepared testimony on processing fee by Houston Chronicle

The proposal, meanwhile, reduces the amount of money that remains in many county offices, while actually costing vehicle owners more.

"I am truly appalled they are going to charge everybody $5 more a year just because they can," Sullivan said, saying his concern is more focused on rising rates for drivers than his own budget or being the one likely to hear complaints about higher costs. "I'm a big boy, I can take it. But when 2 million people show up at a window and it costs more, that consumer is going to be livid … I think an average taxpayer expects an increase in service for an increase in cost."

Echoing Sullivan's expectation that higher costs should come with better service, driver Dan Bruce, 61, said he's happy to pay more - if it comes with an easier experience.

"It took me 40 minutes last time," Bruce said, recalling a March trip to his local grocery to renew his auto registration.

The recent rancor over the processing and handling fee is just the latest spat between the motor vehicles department and local officials. In 2015, the state eliminated inspection stickers and connected them to the blue inspection sticker, the new process of inspecting a vehicle before it is renewed confused many drivers.

"It has been a nightmare for Bexar County and the state of Texas," Uresti said.

County officials faulted the state for poorly communicating the change, and worry the fee changes would face the same fate.

"I can't find a tax assessor who knew this was coming until we read the rules last month," Travis County Tax Assessor-Collector Bruce Elfant said.

Sullivan said a public hearing process that closed May 23 that was not widely advertised "underscores my concerns that this has been not well vetted and there are no clear plans going forward."

Funding changing

Lawmakers, who also heard from frustrated drivers when the single sticker process started, said they were optimistic the concerns could be addressed, but it will likely mean renewals will increase from their current prices.

"There is a shortfall on the horizon and somehow we need to figure that out," Pickett said, noting auto registration rates have stayed constant for more than a decade, and the state's gas tax hasn't increased in 25 years.

Nearly $49 of every registration goes to the State Highway Fund, one of the sources TxDOT relies on to maintain and expand roads in Texas. That will increase slightly if fees are increased, adding another $47 million to the highway fund.

As the state reconsiders how it pays for highway construction - voters have in the past two years approved more than $2 billion in funding strictly for non-tolled state roads - lawmakers are also looking at all fees, some of which could be abolished.

"I do not see a purpose to registering vehicles annually," state Rep. Jason Isaac, R-Dripping Springs, said. Isaac said when he's inquired about the reason for annual vehicle registrations, he said "money is the answer" state agencies have provided.

Pickett said that's likely true, but abolishing it means the Legislature would need to address a $1.5 billion loss for transportation spending. As it's essentially a user fee paid by vehicle owners, he said some cost makes sense.

"Texas is in the middle if not toward the bottom of what we charge," he said of auto registration renewal costs nationwide.