Vehicles: local agency charges: use of streets or highways

The law confirms that local charges supporting street maintenance and repair, when tied to providing public services, are not banned road-use charges.

What the law does ​

• Allows local agencies to impose or collect fees, charges, surcharges, or their components on public-service providers or ratepayers to recover street maintenance, repair, and related road-use costs.
• Specifies that these public-service charges are not prohibited taxes, permit fees, or charges for the privilege of using streets or highways.
• Retains the general ban on local charges for the privilege of using streets or highways, except certain pre-1989 fees and permits for extralegal loads.

Who it affects ​

• Local agencies that provide public services or levy charges for those services.
• Public-service providers and their ratepayers subject to charges that recover street-related costs.

Context ​

The law rejects a 2025 court interpretation that treated these charges as barred road-use fees.