The North Texas Tollway Authority Board of Directors on Oct. 8 approved the preliminary FY2026 system budget required by the trust agreement.

Horacio Porter, NTTA chief financial officer, presented the budget overview, saying the plan preserves service levels, meets bondholder obligations and funds capital investment priorities. Porter said staff recommended a $355,000,000 contribution to the five-year capital plan for 2026 and reported enterprise-level positive contribution of about $375,000,000.

Porter highlighted debt-service coverage metrics the board uses to assess financing strength: a first-tier debt-service coverage of 2.38 and a combined first- and second-tier coverage of 1.6 for 2026. He said the authority begins the year with roughly $1 billion in cash on hand and anticipates about $2.4 billion of additional cash over five years per independent traffic-and-revenue forecasts.

Board members had no substantive changes from staff's earlier presentation and voted to adopt the preliminary budget; Director Knight moved for approval and Director Baker seconded. The motion passed unanimously. NTTA staff said a final budget will return to the board for approval in December under the trust agreement timetable.

The board and staff discussed priorities embedded in the plan, including proactive asset maintenance, continued capital delivery and evaluating insourcing versus outsourcing of some operations. The preliminary approval allows staff to continue project planning and contract scheduling to meet the capital program's timelines.