September 13, 2005 -- The Texas Department of Transportation and the El Paso County Tax Assessor-Collector's Office are launching a two year campaign aimed at educating the public about the importance of vehicle registration.

"Put Texas in Your Corner" kicks off this month in El Paso, Houston, and Longview. The statewide campaign is set for January 2006.

The state is spending $5 million on the campaign, and hope it will reduce the number of unregistered vehicles.

It's estimated 720,000 vehicles out of 18 million driving on Texan roadways have expired registration stickers, or have not been registered at all.

"When you're talking about 18 million vehicles, that 4% generates around $43 or $45 million statewide, and if we lose out several million dollars for our community because of expired registrations, or they're not renewed, that's a chunk of money," said Joe Picket, State Representative, (D-El Paso), during Tuesday's press conference at the El Paso County Courthouse.

Guillermo Aguilar is an El Pasoan who didn't know what registration money was used for, "If everyone can be aware of that, that what we're paying is going to come straight to us and affect us long term because you know there is a lot of roads and streets that need repair and where that money comes from, a lot of us don't know."

Vehicle registration in Texas averages $60, 1/3 of that money benefits roads in the county, while the other 2/3 goes towards state highways.

Newcomers have 30 days to register their car with TxDOT, and not having your vehicle paper work up to date can cost up to $200 in fines.

You can see your dollars being put to use along loop 375 and U.S. 54