THECB finance chief reports early FY2025 results; bond issuance planning continues

Anthony Infantini, chief financial officer for the Higher Education Coordinating Board, presented the agency’s fiscal-year-2025 financial report to the Agency Operations Committee on Jan. 22.

“This report is the first 3 months of our fiscal year 2025 and our fiscal year began in September,” Infantini said, describing the report as primarily showing budget adjustments for unexpended balances in the agency’s biennial budget.

Infantini told the committee that, after the board adopted rules governing a special fund, the “Beyond Time Fund” balance of $157,000,000 was allocated among 32 eligible institutions; that allocation reduced the agency’s unappropriated cash balance in the quarter.

On bond and loan activity, Infantini said the board had authorized issuance of bonds for the upcoming academic year and staff had reserved volume cap to support college-access loan financing for 2025–26. By statute the agency may request up to $200,000,000 per year; staff reserved $150,000,000 as a conservative target given lower loan demand.

Infantini said loan demand has declined, in part because the board’s manageable-debt limits restrict how much it will lend to an individual borrower. He said the bond resolution permits refunding of currently callable bonds only if doing so produces sufficient net savings; staff do not expect a refunding opportunity in the current market conditions.

Committee members asked for the bond cap and the bond‑counsel review schedule; Infantini said the statutory cap is $200,000,000 and that bond counsel is reviewed every two years with the next contract effective Sept. 1 (fiscal schedule). He also said the board’s financial-advisor contract is staggered and follows the bond‑counsel timeline.

The item was presented for information; no vote was required.