Arizona vs Texas: Local Ordinance Comparison (2026)

Tiny Homes

Under ARS 9-461.18, every Arizona municipality with more than 75,000 residents must permit at least one attached and one detached accessory dwelling unit on any lot zoned for a single-family home. Cities that failed to adopt compliant rules by January 1, 2025 must allow ADUs outright.

Texas has no tiny-home-specific statute. Any transportable, chassis-mounted dwelling that reaches 320 square feet is manufactured housing under Occupations Code Chapter 1201, built to federal HUD standards and sealed and licensed statewide by the Department of Housing and Community Affairs. Placement stays local.

Beekeeping

Arizona requires every beekeeper to register apiaries with the State Department of Agriculture, regardless of city rules, and follows uniform statewide pest and disease management standards.

Texas keeps beekeeping light-touch: registration with the Texas Apiary Inspection Service is voluntary, not required to own hives. Beekeepers may register annually with the chief apiary inspector, and that registration expires each August 31.

Exotic Pets

Arizona Game and Fish Commission rules apply uniformly statewide and prohibit private possession of restricted live wildlife including big cats, primates, alligators, and venomous reptiles without a special license.

Texas Health & Safety Code Chapter 822 Subchapter E governs ownership of dangerous wild animals: lions, tigers, bears, primates, and more. Owners must register with their county or city animal-registration agency and meet liability and caging standards.

Wildlife Feeding

Arizona makes it unlawful to intentionally feed or attract wildlife, except birds and tree squirrels, in Maricopa, Pima, and Pinal counties under A.R.S. 13-2927. The offense is a petty offense targeting coyotes, javelina, and similar animals.

Texas lets hunters bait and feed game animals, including deer, on private property statewide. Baiting is unlawful on most public land, for wild turkey in the East Zone, and for all migratory game birds, and is barred inside CWD zones.

Home Cultivation

Proposition 207 and ARS Title 36 Chapter 28.2 set uniform statewide limits on adult-use cannabis home cultivation that municipalities cannot prohibit or expand.

Texas Health & Safety Code 481.121 makes it a crime to possess or grow marijuana anywhere in the state. Home cultivation is illegal in every Texas city and county regardless of plant count or medical status.

Paid Leave Preemption

Arizona preempts most local paid leave mandates, while requiring statewide earned paid sick time under Proposition 206 and ARS 23-371.

Texas appellate courts have struck down municipal paid sick leave ordinances in Austin, Dallas, and San Antonio as preempted under the Texas Minimum Wage Act. HB 2127 (2023) further codifies preemption by barring local regulation of employment benefits and leave policies.

Flood Zones

Arizona statutorily delegates floodplain regulation to counties and flood control districts, setting uniform minimum standards for development in mapped floodplains statewide.

Texas Water Code Section 16.3145 orders the governing body of every Texas city and county to adopt the floodplain-management ordinances or orders needed to qualify for the National Flood Insurance Program.

Stormwater Management

Arizona regulates stormwater discharges through the AZPDES program under ARS Title 49, requiring permits for construction, industrial, and municipal stormwater statewide.

Texas Water Code Section 26.040 lets the TCEQ issue general permits for storm water discharges. Regulated small municipal separate storm sewer systems obtain coverage under TPDES general permit TXR040000, renewed every five years, and must run a written stormwater management program.

Fireworks

A.R.S. 36-1606 makes permissible consumer fireworks a matter of statewide concern: cities and counties may regulate their use but may not ban their sale, and aerial fireworks remain illegal for consumers statewide.

Texas Occupations Code Chapter 2154 governs fireworks sales and use, while Local Government Code Chapter 352 limits how counties can restrict consumer fireworks during drought. The State Fire Marshal licenses retailers across Texas.

Concealed Carry

Arizona allows permitless concealed carry for adults 21 and older, while still issuing optional CCW permits that enable reciprocity with other states.

Texas authorizes License to Carry (LTC) holders to carry concealed handguns statewide under Government Code Chapter 411. Since 2021, permitless constitutional carry under HB 1927 also allows most adults 21 and older to carry without a license, with municipalities preempted from added restrictions.

Local Firearms Preemption

Arizona broadly preempts cities, towns, and counties from regulating firearms, ammunition, components, and related accessories beyond state law.

Texas Local Government Code Section 229.001 broadly preempts municipal regulation of firearms, ammunition, knives, and related accessories. Cities cannot adopt or enforce ordinances regulating the transfer, ownership, possession, transport, or discharge of firearms beyond narrow exceptions for discharge in densely populated areas.

Open Carry

Arizona permits open carry of firearms by adults 18 and older without a license in most public spaces, subject to limited location restrictions.

Texas authorizes open carry of holstered handguns statewide for adults 21 and older under Penal Code 46.02 and HB 910 (2015). Long guns may be openly carried subject to disorderly conduct limits. Municipalities cannot impose additional open carry restrictions.

Food Truck Permits

Arizona Department of Health Services regulates mobile food units statewide under A.R.S. Title 36, Chapter 8 and uniform food code rules in A.A.C. Title 9, applied through county health permits.

Under Texas Health & Safety Code Section 437.0045, a county, city, or public health district may require a food truck permit only if the Department of State Health Services would require the same permit within its own jurisdiction. Uniform state rules govern mobile food units.

Social Gambling Rules

Arizona law defines "social gambling" in ARS § 13-3301(9) and excludes it from criminal liability under § 13-3302(A)(2). A private game qualifies only if no player collects more than personal winnings, no host or third party takes a cut, and every player is at least 21. Miss any one element and the game becomes unlawful promotion of gambling or benefiting from gambling: a felony or misdemeanor under §§ 13-3303 and 13-3304.

Texas Penal Code § 47.02(a) makes betting at cards, dice, or any game of chance a Class C misdemeanor. Section 47.02(b) supplies a defense: gambling that happens in a private place, where nobody profits beyond personal winnings and every player faces the same odds, cannot be prosecuted. Friendly poker nights and betting pools qualify; casino nights and rake-taking games don't.

Sports Betting Law

Arizona legalized event wagering, commonly called sports betting, in 2021 under Arizona Revised Statutes Title 5, Chapter 11. The Department of Gaming may issue no more than ten event wagering operator licenses to non-tribal applicants, Arizona pro sports teams, PGA Tour host venues, or NASCAR national-touring-race promoters, or their designees, and no more than ten to Indian tribes that have signed the current tribal-state gaming compact. Offering event wagering without one of these licenses is unlawful statewide.

Texas licenses no retail sportsbook and no betting app. Placing a wager on the outcome of a game, contest, or a player's performance is a criminal offense under Penal Code § 47.02(a)(1), a Class C misdemeanor. Running or profiting from the action, a bookie, a betting site, an office pool that takes a cut, escalates to a Class A misdemeanor under §§ 47.03 and 47.04.

Assessment & Dues

Under A.R.S. § 33-1807, unpaid assessments in an Arizona planned community become an automatic lien on the lot, and the association may charge late fees and interest if the declaration allows. The lien may be foreclosed like a mortgage, but only once the owner is delinquent 18 months or owes $10,000 or more.

Under the Texas Residential Property Owners Protection Act, unpaid assessments become a lien (Tex. Prop. Code § 209.0094), but a Texas HOA may not foreclose that lien without first obtaining a court order (§ 209.0092). Owners can demand an alternative payment plan of at least three months under § 209.0062 before collection proceeds.

Board Procedures

Arizona heavily regulates HOA governance: A.R.S. § 33-1804 requires open board and member meetings (with limited executive sessions) and lets members record them, A.R.S. § 33-1812 mandates absentee ballots and permits secret ballots for board elections, and A.R.S. § 33-1805 makes association financial and other records open to members for inspection.

Texas Property Code Chapter 209 governs residential subdivision homeowners associations, not condominium associations and not associations that are themselves subject to the Public Information Act. Under Section 209.005, an HOA must open its books and records, including financial records, to any owner who sends a certified-mail request describing what is wanted. The association gets 10 business days to schedule an inspection or hand over copies, and 15 more if it cannot meet that.

CC&R Enforcement

Arizona HOAs enforce CC&Rs, design rules, and bylaws, but A.R.S. § 33-1803 channels enforcement through a detailed violation-notice process. A member who gets a violation notice may demand, within 21 days, the specific provision violated, the date, who observed it, and how to contest, and the HOA cannot collect attorney fees until it provides this.

A Texas HOA enforces its recorded restrictive covenants (Tex. Prop. Code Ch. 202), but Chapter 209 controls the procedure: § 209.006 requires certified-mail notice and a cure opportunity before most enforcement, and § 209.007 gives the owner a hearing. Section 202.003 directs that covenants 'shall be liberally construed' to give effect to their purpose.

Drought Landscaping Rights

Arizona does not give homeowners a general right to xeriscape, gravel, or desert landscaping over an HOA's objection; that stays governed entirely by each community's own declaration. What A.R.S. § 33-1819 grants is narrower: once a planned community's declarant control period ends, an association that already allows natural grass cannot flatly ban artificial turf on a member's lot, though it may regulate the turf's location, coverage, and quality.

Property Code Section 202.007 voids any homeowners association rule that bans drought-resistant landscaping or water-conserving natural turf, and Section 202.008 bars fines for a brown lawn during a municipal or utility watering restriction. The protection reaches nearly every Texas HOA, with one narrow carve-out: associations governing at least 4,000 commercial, multifamily, or open-space acres inside a municipality over 175,000 people that sits in a county anchored by a city over one million residents fall outside Section 202.007 entirely.

Cottage Food Operations

Arizona lets you cook for sale in your own kitchen once you register with the Department of Health Services and hold a current food handler certificate from an accredited program. A.R.S. § 36-136(I)(4)(g) exempts cottage food products made in a private home for commercial purposes from the state food establishment rules, so there is no licence, no inspection and no annual sales cap. What Arizona does impose is a packaging and labeling regime under A.R.S. § 36-932, plus separate delivery rules for anything containing dairy, meat or poultry and for anything that needs temperature control.

Texas does not license cottage food at all. Health and Safety Code Section 437.0191(a) declares that a cottage food production operation is not a food service establishment, and Section 437.0192(a) forbids any local government authority, including a local health department, from regulating production or requiring a license, permit or fee. The ceiling is $150,000 in annual gross income from cottage food sales, a figure the Department of State Health Services adjusts each year for inflation using the CPI-U. Texas defines the category by a list of six excluded foods rather than by a shelf-stable test, so since September 1, 2025 an operation may even sell refrigerated foods if it registers with the department under Section 437.01953.

DUI Checkpoint Legality

Arizona has no DUI checkpoint statute at all. The words "checkpoint" and "roadblock" appear nowhere in the Arizona Revised Statutes, so nothing in state law authorizes sobriety checkpoints, bans them, or sets rules on notice, supervision or how long a stop may last. The only stop authority title 28 grants is A.R.S. § 28-1594, which permits a stop and detention only as reasonably necessary to investigate an actual or suspected violation of that title, so a suspicionless checkpoint stop rests on constitutional analysis rather than on any Arizona statute. Everything that happens after the stop is heavily codified, from the impaired-to-the-slightest-degree standard in § 28-1381(A)(1) to the twelve-month refusal suspension in § 28-1321(B).

The Texas Legislature has authorized exactly one vehicle checkpoint program, and it has nothing to do with alcohol. Government Code Section 411.0095 lets the Department of Public Safety run border crossing checkpoints to stop stolen vehicles, farm tractors, construction equipment, aircraft and watercraft from entering Mexico, and it hedges that power with four conditions on the face of the statute. No Texas code contains a sobriety checkpoint provision, a roadblock provision, or any grant of authority to stop drivers at random to look for intoxication. Texas DWI enforcement instead runs on individualized stops under Transportation Code Section 521.025(b) and on the implied consent scheme in Transportation Code Chapter 724 that takes effect only after an arrest.

Recording Police

Arizona's only statute aimed at filming police, A.R.S. § 13-3732, has never taken effect. It would have made it a class 3 misdemeanor to keep video recording law enforcement activity within eight feet of it after a verbal warning, but the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona enjoined its enforcement on September 9, 2022, about two weeks before its effective date, and the Attorney General filed a notice of non-opposition. The section still prints in the Arizona Revised Statutes with no injunction note, so reading the code alone gives the wrong answer. What actually governs is Arizona's one-party consent wiretap exemption in A.R.S. § 13-3012(9) and the interference offenses, which require force, a threat of force, or physical involvement in an arrest.

Texas has never enacted an express statutory right to film police, so the legal boundary for a bystander with a phone is set by the offense of Interference with Public Duties, Texas Penal Code Section 38.15. That section punishes a person who with criminal negligence interrupts, disrupts, impedes, or otherwise interferes with a peace officer performing a duty, as a Class B misdemeanor, and it carries a defense in Subsection (d) where the alleged interference consisted of speech only. Texas also allows one-party recording of a conversation you take part in under Penal Code Section 16.02(c)(4)(A), and the only Texas statute that mentions filming officers by name, Government Code Section 614.232, bans law enforcement agencies from letting reality television crews ride along.

Stop & Identify Laws

Arizona does have a stop-and-identify statute, but it is a narrow one. A.R.S. § 13-2412 compels you to state your true full name only after a peace officer has lawfully detained you on reasonable suspicion of a crime and has first advised you that refusing to answer is unlawful. The same subsection says you cannot be compelled to answer any other question, and it asks for a spoken name rather than a document. Refusing is a class 2 misdemeanor, punishable by up to four months in jail and a fine of up to $750.

Texas Penal Code Section 38.02 makes it a crime to refuse your name, residence address, or date of birth only after a peace officer has already lawfully arrested you. Being detained on the street on reasonable suspicion, short of arrest, triggers no statutory duty to identify yourself in Texas. Two carve-outs matter: giving a false or fictitious name is an offense at arrest, at detention, and when the officer has good cause to believe you witnessed a crime, and since September 1, 2023 a lawfully detained driver who does not produce a driver's license must give name, driver's license number, residence address, and date of birth.

Vehicle Search & Consent

Arizona is one of the few states whose legalisation act says in terms that lawful adult conduct "may not constitute the basis for detention, search or arrest." A.R.S. § 36-2852(A), enacted by Proposition 207 in November 2020, does exactly that, and subsection C adds that the odor of marijuana or burnt marijuana "does not by itself constitute reasonable articulable suspicion of a crime." The odor rule has one written exception: it does not apply while an officer is investigating impaired driving under A.R.S. § 28-1381. Conduct outside the protected amounts, including consuming in a moving vehicle, is not covered and can still supply cause for a search.

No Texas statute obliges a driver to consent to a vehicle search, and none requires an officer to warn you that you may refuse. What Texas law does require is a paper trail: Article 2B.0054 of the Code of Criminal Procedure makes a peace officer who makes a motor vehicle stop report whether a search was conducted and, if so, whether the individual detained consented to it, what the reason for the search was, and whether anything was found. Texas then backs refusal with an unusually broad remedy, Article 38.23, which excludes evidence obtained in violation of any provision of Texas or federal law by an officer or any other person and requires the jury to be instructed to disregard it.

Golf Carts & Low-Speed Vehicles

Arizona runs two separate low-speed classes and gives neither one a local street-designation scheme. A neighborhood electric vehicle, the state's version of a federal low-speed vehicle, may not exceed 25 mph, may not be driven on a road posted above 35 mph except to cross at an intersection, and must carry a permanent notice of those restrictions in clear view of the driver under A.R.S. § 28-966. A golf cart is defined separately in A.R.S. § 28-101(37) and escapes registration only when it is used in the operation of a golf course or moved on a highway "only incidentally", so a cart used as everyday neighborhood transport has to be registered, equipped and driven by a licensed driver like any other motor vehicle. One narrow shoulder privilege exists, and it reaches only age restricted communities in unincorporated Maricopa County.

Texas lets golf carts onto public roads in four defined situations rather than by general permission: inside a platted master planned community, on a beach open to vehicular traffic, on a road posted at 35 mph or less during daytime within five miles of where the cart is normally parked while travelling to or from a golf course, and anywhere a city has opted in under Transportation Code Section 551.404. The Texas Department of Motor Vehicles is forbidden to register a golf cart for highway use no matter how it has been modified, so street-legal carts carry a separate golf cart license plate costing up to $10 that never expires. Neighborhood electric vehicles are treated more generously and may use roads posted up to 45 mph.

Squatter's Rights & Adverse Possession

Arizona's adverse possession periods are tiered: 2 years by right of possession alone (A.R.S. § 12-522), 3 years under color of title (§ 12-523), 5 years under a recorded deed with taxes paid (§§ 12-524, 12-525), and a 10-year catch-all (§ 12-526). Possession must be open, hostile, and continuous; removal is by court action.

In Texas a squatter can claim title only through adverse possession, with periods that shorten as the claim strengthens: 3 years under title or color of title (§ 16.024), 5 years with a registered deed plus paid taxes (§ 16.025), 10 years for bare possession capped at 160 acres (§ 16.026), and 25 years under a recorded instrument (§ 16.028).

Agricultural Zoning Protection

Arizona limits local zoning power over agricultural land, protecting commercial farming activities from overly restrictive land-use regulation.

Texas Local Government Code Chapter 212 and Agriculture Code Chapter 251 limit municipal authority to zone or regulate land qualified for agricultural use appraisal. Counties have no general zoning authority, and cities face restrictions on annexing or imposing land use rules on established farms.

Farm Nuisance Protection

Arizona's Right to Farm Act in ARS 3-112 protects established agricultural operations from nuisance suits when surrounding land use changes.

The Texas Right to Farm Act, Agriculture Code Chapter 251, protects established agricultural operations from nuisance lawsuits and local regulations after one year of operation. HB 1750 and HB 2308 (2023) significantly strengthened protections, preempting municipal ordinances that restrict generally accepted agricultural practices.

Taxes & Fees

Arizona requires short-term rental operators to license with the Department of Revenue and remit transaction privilege tax plus any applicable county and city transient lodging taxes statewide.

Texas imposes a 6 percent state hotel occupancy tax on short-term rentals, including houses, condos, and Airbnb or VRBO stays, whenever a room costs 15 dollars or more per day.

HOA Restrictions

Arizona law bars homeowners associations from banning solar energy devices outright. A.R.S. § 33-1816 lets an association adopt only reasonable placement rules, and only if those rules do not block installation, impair function, restrict use, or raise the device's cost or reduce its efficiency. Courts must award attorney fees and costs to whichever side wins a lawsuit over the section.

Section 202.010 of the Texas Property Code voids any homeowners association rule that bans or restricts installing a solar energy device, a term that under Tax Code Section 171.107 expressly includes solar roof tiles. An HOA may not withhold approval once a homeowner meets the law's placement and design conditions, though a narrow list of restrictions, including roofline height, roof-slope conformity and required hardware tones, remains enforceable.

Fencing & Safety Requirements

Arizona enforces a uniform statewide swimming pool enclosure law requiring barriers around residential pools, with cities and counties bound to minimum standards but allowed to adopt stricter local rules.

Texas Health & Safety Code Chapter 757 establishes minimum pool yard enclosure requirements statewide, including a 48-inch fence height, self-closing self-latching gates, and limits on climbable surfaces. The rules apply to multi-unit residential pools across all Texas cities.

Tobacco Age Restrictions

Arizona bans the sale or furnishing of tobacco, vapor, and alternative nicotine products to anyone under 21 under A.R.S. 13-3622. The state raised its own minimum age from 18 to 21 in 2025 to match the federal Tobacco 21 standard.

Texas Health and Safety Code Chapter 161 sets the minimum age for purchasing or possessing tobacco and e-cigarette products at 21 statewide, aligned with federal Tobacco 21. Active military members 18 and older are exempt. The standard applies uniformly across all Texas municipalities.

Recycling Requirements

Arizona forbids selling plastic bottles and rigid containers unless they carry a molded resin identification code, the familiar number inside the chasing-arrows triangle. A.R.S. § 49-835 has mandated this labeling statewide since July 1, 1991.

Texas Health and Safety Code Section 361.425 orders every county, municipality, school district, university, and state agency to run a recycling program that separates and collects at least five materials: aluminum, steel cans, cartons, high-grade office paper, and corrugated cardboard.

Dash Cam & Windshield Mounting

Arizona is one of the few states whose code names dash cam recording and permits it in so many words. A.R.S. section 28-963(A)(3) forbids recording or broadcasting video on a device while driving, then carves out use of the device for the sole purpose of continuously recording or broadcasting video within or outside of the motor vehicle, which is exactly what a dash cam does. For the mount itself, A.R.S. section 28-959.01(A)(12) exempts safety monitoring equipment and driver feedback devices from the windshield obstruction ban when they sit immediately behind, slightly above or slightly below the rearview mirror. A screen that plays video to the driver is a separate question and is prohibited while the vehicle is in motion.

Texas grants no square inches of windshield to a camera. Transportation Code Section 547.613(a)(1) makes it a misdemeanor to operate a vehicle with an object or material placed on or attached to the windshield or a side or rear window that obstructs or reduces the operator's clear view, and the sixteen exceptions in subsection (b) name a rearview mirror, a sun visor, a rear window wiper motor, a trunk lid hinge and a luggage rack, but no camera, phone or navigation unit. So a suction-cup dash cam is lawful only for as long as an officer agrees it does not cut into the driver's view, and a dash or console mount avoids the section entirely because nothing is attached to the glass.

Lane Splitting & Filtering

Arizona still prohibits lane splitting as most riders picture it, but A.R.S. § 28-903(F) opens a narrow lane-filtering exception. A two-wheeled motorcycle may move between lanes to pass a vehicle that is stopped ahead of it in the same lane, on a street with at least two lanes running the same way and a speed limit of 45 mph or less, at no more than 15 mph, and only if the move can be made safely. Outside those conditions subsections B and C of the same section still bar passing in an occupied lane and riding between lanes or adjacent rows of vehicles. A violation is a civil traffic violation under A.R.S. § 28-121(B).

Texas banned motorcycle lane splitting in plain words on September 1, 2023. Transportation Code Section 545.0605(a)(3)(B), added by House Bill 4122 of the 88th Legislature, says the operator of a motorcycle may not operate the motorcycle between lanes of traffic moving in the same direction. The same subdivision also bars passing a motor vehicle while in the same lane as that vehicle, which forecloses the in-lane filtering that riders sometimes treat as a lesser version of splitting. The one carve-out in Section 545.0605(b) is for a police officer performing official duties.

Plate Covers & Obstruction

Arizona bans any plate cover, spray, electronic device or electrochromatic film that obscures the numbers, characters, year tabs or issuing state name "from any angle", under A.R.S. § 28-2354(D), unless ADOT authorises it. A separate rule in subsection C protects the word Arizona across the top of the plate, and it is the softer of the two: subsection E bars an officer from stopping or citing you for that alone, and subsection F sets the penalty at $30, rising to $100 for a repeat within twelve months. Subsection B adds the mounting rules, including a minimum height of twelve inches from the ground to the bottom of the plate. Arizona issues one plate for most vehicles, and it goes on the rear.

Texas outlaws license plate covers in Transportation Code Section 504.945(a)(7), which makes it an offense to display a plate carrying a coating, covering, protective substance or other material that distorts angular visibility or detectability, obscures half or more of the state name, or alters, covers or obscures the plate numbers or the plate colour. A clear cover is no safer than a smoked one, because the statute reaches distortion of angular visibility and not just plain readability. The base fine is up to $200, but obscuring the plate number specifically carries $300, then $600 for a second offense and a Class B misdemeanor for a third, and a driver who removes the cover before the first court appearance can have the charge dismissed on payment of a reimbursement fee of no more than $10.

Studded Tire & Chain Rules

Arizona lets you run metal studded tires anywhere in the state from October 1 to May 1, and bans them for the other five months. A.R.S. § 28-958(B)(3) also caps the hardware itself: the studs may put no more than three per cent of the tire's total road-contact area in metal, and they must be tungsten carbide or another suitable material set into a pneumatic tire. Tire chains sit under a separate exception with no calendar limit, but only when snow, ice or similar skid conditions actually make them necessary. Running studs after May 1 is a civil traffic violation under A.R.S. § 28-121(B), not a criminal offence.

Texas is one of the states that never wrote a studded tire calendar. Transportation Code Section 547.612(c) is the whole of the law: a tire on a moving vehicle may not carry a block, stud, flange, cleat, spike or other non-rubber protuberance projecting beyond the tread unless the protuberance does not injure the highway, or is a tire chain of reasonable proportion used as required for safety because of a condition that might cause the vehicle to skid. There is no permitted date range, no stud material or projection limit, no permit scheme and no restriction that varies by county. The practical test is highway damage, and tire chains get their own express safety allowance.

Window Tint Limits

Arizona lets the front side windows carry film with a light transmission of thirty-three percent plus or minus three percent, so a front window measuring down to 30 percent still complies, and it sets no darkness limit at all on the side windows behind the driver or on the rear window. Every tinted pane, front and rear, is capped at a luminous reflectance of thirty-five percent plus or minus three percent, which is what rules out mirrored and heavily metallic film. On the windshield the state allows a tint strip across the topmost portion provided the bottom edge of the material sits at least twenty-nine inches above the undepressed driver's seat and the strip is not red or amber. Arizona has no periodic passenger-vehicle safety inspection, so all of this is checked at the roadside rather than at a testing station.

Texas allows film down to 25 percent light transmission on both front side windows and on the windshield strip, with a matching ceiling of 25 percent luminous reflectance, and it sets no darkness limit at all on side windows behind the driver. Windshield film may not reach below the AS-1 line or more than five inches down from the top, whichever is closer to the top, and it may not be red, blue or amber. The rules sit in Transportation Code Section 547.613, which bans tint outright and then legalizes it through a list of exceptions. Since the safety inspection ended for non-commercial vehicles on January 1, 2025, tint is caught at the roadside rather than once a year.