As of midnight Jan. 1, tolls on the Fort Bend County toll road system increased.

The new rates on the Westpark Tollway are now 60-cents for cars, pickup trucks and other two-axle vehicles. On the Fort Bend Parkway, the toll rate is $1.25 for dual-axle vehicles.

Toll road authorities said the increase was needed because of inflation and to make up the revenue lost when tolls were suspended for almost two weeks as Hurricane Ike came ashore.

As far back as September, County Judge Robert Hebert said the county would have to find a way to repay the toll road authority’s reserve fund for money used to offset the loss in revenue.

"We have incurred $640,000 in lost revenue to date. This is 10 percent of our annual debt service,” Hebert said at the time.

Hebert stressed that the money generated by the tolls is used to operate the toll roads and repay the bonds that were sold to build the system. He added that the county will need to find a way to make up the deficit without turning to taxpayers.

“Fort Bend must avoid forcing the use of tax dollars for payment of toll bonds or for operating the system," Hebert said.

The new toll rates are now in effect at all toll plazas.