No tax money

The authority does not receive tax money. Its entire budget comes from the fares collected from motorists using its 107 miles of freeway that ring Houston. Those fees pay for new tollway construction, ongoing maintenance, as well as generate $120 million a year for the county's four precincts for road projects.

HCTRA officials acknowledged the authority was losing about $80,000 a month to run the airport parking program when it sent the recommendation to Commissioners Court last month.

The monthly losses were much larger when the program launched in April 2007, according to revenue figures obtained through a public records request. In its first 33 months of operation, the EZ Tag airport parking program lost about $3.2 million.

"Obviously, the planners at the time believed there would be adequate usage to sustain the program, but our actual experience has shown differently," said LaWanda Howse, the authority's manager for special projects.

80,000 out of 1.7 million

There are 1.7 million EZ Tag holders. Spokesman Eric Hanson said the authority projected about 35 percent of those would use the tags at the airports.

Instead, about 80,000 motorists used it at least once in the last year, a little under 5 percent.

Hanson said the authority came up with its projection after sending crews to the airport garages to see how many vehicles there had EZ Tags.