TxDMV LAR Includes About $68M for IT Capital Items

The Texas Department of Motor Vehicles’ (TxDMV) fiscal year 2028-29 Legislative Appropriations Request (LAR) includes about $68 million in technology-related capital items, a calculated total led by data center and shared technology services.

The agency’s total capital budget request is about $94 million for the biennium. Excluding non-IT items for Regional Service Center maintenance and Camp Hubbard lease payments, the technology-related portion totals about $68 million.

The largest technology item is about $49 million for data center and shared technology services, with about $24.5 million requested in each fiscal year. The agency said the state data center manages services for the department that include reprogramming, upgrading, expanding and improving systems to meet customer needs.

TxDMV said it continues to see higher testing charges, software licensing costs and server costs for systems housed within the state data center. The agency says those expenses are based on system use and are outside its ability to mitigate.

The capital schedule also includes about $9.8 million in fiscal year 2028 for the TxDMV Automation System. The project is intended to improve customer services and public access to department programs, allow data sharing across TxDMV functions and help the agency better serve customers.

Another $8 million is requested across the biennium for technology replacement and upgrades supporting county tax assessor-collector offices. That project funds deployment and maintenance of printers, computers, monitors, laptops, cash drawers, network communication and related technology at county offices statewide. It also supports point-to-point connectivity to TxDMV’s registration and titling system across all 254 counties and substations.

The agency is also requesting about $1.6 million across the biennium for PC replacement. That project supports replacement of computing technology including desktops, laptops, tablets, printers and related peripheral devices.

The LAR also reflects continued work on the Registration and Titling System, known as RTS, but not through a new 2028-29 capital funding request. The agency is seeking unexpended-balance authority to continue the RTS modernization project funded by the 89th Legislature.

The Legislature appropriated $125 million for design and implementation of a modern RTS replacement system. TxDMV said work began during the 2026-27 biennium, but the department cannot fully use the appropriation during the current biennium and is requesting authority to continue the project into 2028-29.

RTS is the agency’s core business technology system. It was originally designed and built by the Texas Department of Transportation in the mid-1990s to process vehicle registration and title transactions, maintain transaction data and document vehicle histories. The system is used by county tax assessor-collector offices, automobile dealers and other motor vehicle-related businesses.

TxDMV said the system has been stabilized for near-term use, but advances in technology and application development have made it obsolete. The agency said those issues are becoming harder to resolve as fewer staff are available with the programming skills needed to maintain the system’s software architecture.

The LAR’s only exceptional item is not a technology funding request. TxDMV is requesting authority for seven additional full-time equivalent positions to support the Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention Authority, with costs covered in the agency’s baseline request and no additional funding requested.