Finance presenter: toll fees drove large December revenue figures; bond payments and budget shares outlined
Loading...
Summary
Eddie Gutierrez of Bluestone Capital Solutions told the board December revenues were $6,118,754 and walked through operating expenses, recapture rates and a reported 2026 bond payment allocation; board members asked about toll-timing and accounting treatment.
Eddie Gutierrez, financial consultant with Bluestone Capital Solutions, reviewed December and first-quarter financials for the bridge authority, reporting a December total revenue figure of $6,118,754 and a detailed expense breakdown.
"Total for the December, 6,118,754," Gutierrez said during his presentation, and he added that 97% of that total consisted of toll fees ($5,927,883). He listed other revenue components as roughly $62,000 in credit-card fees, about $39,000 in interest income, roughly $12,000 from peso exchange activity, $52,000 in rental income and about $25,000 in other income.
On the expense side, Gutierrez reported operating expenses through December of about $919,574, with personnel accounting for approximately 40% of those operating costs. He also said the authority's bond payment for 2026 "is $4,000,213,250" in the slides and described how the presented breakdown apportioned roughly 67% of the bond amount to bridge expansion and about 33% to the DAP-16 project, with bridge expansion funding listed as about $26,000,000 funded through December.
Board members asked when the most recent toll increase had taken effect; Gutierrez replied it had been in place for about a year. Members also questioned whether the authority operated on a cash basis; Gutierrez confirmed the financials are cash based and that ABI charges are processed automatically in January.
Gutierrez closed with recapture-rate analysis showing historical and FY2026 trends (e.g., 118% for 2024, 104% for 2025, and a FYTD 106% figure for 2026 driven by monthly variation).
What happens next: The figures were presented for the board's information; the meeting did not adopt new financial policies or change budget appropriations at this session. The transcript includes different revenue numbers presented by the director and the financial consultant; the board may request reconciled statements if needed.
