NTTA’s debt and the cash left to maintain its roads

First reconcile the debt balance

At December 31, 2025, total bond principal was $8,410,516,903. Adding $443,662,024 of unamortized premiums gives $8,854,178,927 of bonds payable. The $335.33 million due within one year is included in that total; it is not additional debt to add on top. Removing the current portion leaves $8.519 billion classified beyond one year.

The prior-year carrying amount was $9.340 billion. The report’s roll-forward adds $750.5 million and removes $1,236.6 million to reach $8.854 billion. Those changes combine bond activity and premium accounting; they are not a simple comparison of cash borrowed and cash principal repaid. A new refunding can retire one security while issuing another. Note 5, pages 37–38. These balances concern bonds; subscription arrangements and other liabilities are reported separately.

How the report gets from operating income to 1.64 times

Note 2 starts with $880.227 million of GAAP operating income, then adds depreciation, selected amortization, capital-improvement fund expenses and reserve-maintenance fund expenses. The resulting net revenues available for debt service are $1,105.475 million. Dividing by $675.654 million of calculated annual debt service gives 1.636, reported as 1.64 times.

The add-backs have an economic consequence. A major repair can be an expense in operating income while being added back in the coverage calculation. That does not make the repair free. Subtracting the $67.749 million reserve-maintenance expense from the reported numerator, as an analytical adjustment, reduces the ratio to 1.54 times. It is a different calculation, not the authority’s reported covenant ratio.

The Note 2 reconciliation is labeled unaudited within the audited annual report. Its calculated service requirement uses $340.679 million of bond interest expense and $334.975 million of scheduled principal. The statement of cash flows instead shows $372.352 million of interest paid and $345.636 million of principal paid. Timing, scope and accounting make these different denominators. Note 2, page 32; cash flows, page 23.

Follow cash through the actual year

Use the North Texas Tollway System column consistently. Cash from operating activities was $1,043,516,854. Principal and interest cash payments totaled $717,988,082; capital purchases were $229,340,799. Subtracting those uses leaves $96,187,973. This screen is before settlement proceeds, bond refunding, defeasance, subsidies, deferred financing costs and investment movements.

The complete cash-flow statement reconciles opening cash of $28.089 million to closing cash of $46.826 million. In between, a $144.898 million legal-settlement receipt and $54.984 million of deferred-financing-cost cash flows sit beside $630.460 million of refunding proceeds, $698.470 million paid to a refunding escrow and $100 million of defeasance cash. Net investment purchases absorbed another $128.211 million. The closing balance therefore cannot be inferred from toll receipts less ordinary debt service alone. Cash-flow statement, page 23.

The calculator separates that operating screen from the complete reconciliation. Its extra renewal input asks how much additional work the screen could absorb if everything else were held fixed. It does not assert that the balance is unrestricted or that an extra project is already approved.

Maintenance belongs in three places, for three reasons

Current operation and maintenance pays the recurring cost of keeping the system running. The Reserve Maintenance Fund covers work that does not recur annually, such as renewals and major repairs. The Capital Improvement Fund can pay for reconstruction, extensions, additions and replacement. The fund descriptions are in Note 1, pages 26–27; the trust agreement describes their uses in Sections 505–510. FY2025 report; trust agreement.

Do not subtract the same maintenance dollar once as operating cash and again as a separate annual allowance. The operating cash figure already reflects payments to employees and suppliers. A new stress input should represent additional work beyond that reported year. Equally, do not call every capital dollar maintenance: the $229.3 million cash line combines acquisition and construction, not a separately disclosed maintenance-only bill.

The covenant design also matters. The report describes rate requirements of 1.35 times first-tier debt service, 1.20 times first- and second-tier debt service, and 1.00 times all secured obligations, using the greatest requirement. The headline 1.64 all-debt ratio is not the sole legal test. A useful reading checks every applicable tier and the relevant definitions. Note 2, page 31.

What the $96.2 million screen changes

An extra $50 million of annual renewal work would reduce the screen to $46.2 million. An extra $100 million would make it −$3.8 million, holding operating cash, financing payments and existing capital purchases fixed. This is a sensitivity calculation on FY2025 amounts, not a forecast of NTTA’s next budget or a finding that it cannot finance construction.

For a new project, ask whether the cost is recurring or periodic, what funds are legally available, how the trust defines net revenues, and whether financing shifts the burden to future years. A large accounting coverage cushion and a positive operating screen are useful observations; neither supplies an unrestricted capital budget by itself.

The toll-road bond cash waterfall isolates those mechanics in a fully declared worked example. The HCTRA transfer study shows a different public enterprise’s cash destination. For who controls the roads, return to the Texas ownership hub.