TEMPLE, Texas (KXXV) — Food truck owners across Texas must now obtain a new state permit instead of county-level permits, and Bell County vendors say they were caught off guard after being told their existing permits would carry them through the year — until recently.
Watch the story here:
Timothy Hardwick has owned his food truck, Flexin Texan, for six and a half years, opening in 2020. He said the cost jump is significant.
"For Bell County, the permit was $250, which they just raised from the previous year. And now, roughly, I'll be paying, just for the state permit, I'll be paying around $2,000, just over $1,800."
The new state requirement means Hardwick's truck will have to shut down for a few weeks until it is up to code — during one of the busiest seasons of the year.
"Summertime is prime time for events, and unfortunately, some of these events are gonna be affected as well. My food truck is closing down for part of July because of it," Hardwick said.
Bell County Public Health District notified Hardwick and other local owners at the beginning of June that their current permits would not grandfather them into the new state law as the health district had previously believed.
"Everything is very costly, especially with the end-of-quarter taxes coming up. Us local food trucks have to pay for that and pay for this permit all at the same time practically. So it's a big, big cost-effective for our businesses and it is gonna directly affect us," Hardwick said.
The health district was notified about the hard requirement in the spring. Executive Director Robert Kirkpatrick said the organization is hoping to offset the loss of revenue by partnering with the state for inspections and performing other food permits.
"The revenues from our permits help keep the doors open. It would have been a strain on us if we'd have known earlier that the prorating process is more of a strain than it is currently," Kirkpatrick said. "The collaborative agreement does help offset the loss of revenue from having being able to permit locally."
Kirkpatrick said the timeline of the change created challenges for local vendors.
"Originally in conversations with the Texas Department of State Health Services, they were wanting to grandfather local licenses in until they expired so that not every mobile food vendor had to get their license renewed at the same time, being July 1st. After some legal review, it was told to us mid to late March that it wasn't going to be able to be done. At that time, we started prorating our rates for those that would from that time till the end of June," Kirkpatrick said.
Troy Sims opened his food truck, Hook Em Barbeque, at the start of this year after 4 months of preparations and making sure it was up to the county code. He said the new fees, combined with the state of the economy, may force him to raise menu prices.
"Gas went up, food has gone up, and I kept everything the same. I haven't changed my prices. Every time you use a credit card, I pay your fee... It's just fees on top of fees on top of fees and permits and so forth that people don't see," Sims said.
Bell County Health District said long-time vendors will have a grace period for inspections as they enter the July 4th weekend, one of the busiest times for mobile food vendors.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
