Bridge Board Won’t Meet

The Santa Rosa Bay Bridge Authority, which oversees the 3.5-mile Garcon Point toll bridge in northwest Florida, has canceled its June 13 meeting.

It is the second meeting in a row canceled by the agency, which has $116 million of defaulted toll revenue bonds.

SRBBA board chairman Morgan Lamb said the meeting was called off due to the lack of a quorum. He said a special meeting could be scheduled if needed before Sept. 12, which is the next scheduled meeting. That meeting is more than two months after the July bond payment is due.

The authority has already defaulted on two payments — one last year and again in January — because toll revenue collections fell short of debt-service needs.

The trustee, Bank of New York Mellon, made a partial bond payment in March on a pro-rata basis.

The authority’s board resumed meeting in December after new members were appointed. No meetings were held for a year before that because most board members resigned after the Securities and Exchange Commission launched an inquiry. The SEC is believed to be investigating the SRBBA’s lack of disclosure practices and audits because no funds were available for operations.

The trustee has hired FTI Consulting Inc. as financial advisor to assist with restructuring options, though none have been proposed yet.

The Bridge Authority sold $75.5 million of current-interest bonds and $19.4 million of capital appreciation bonds in 1996 to build the span. The bonds were investment grade when they were sold. They are now rated D by Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor’s, and Ca by Moody’s Investors Service.

The toll bridge opened in May 1999 and the agency began supplementing toll revenues with funds from reserves in 2002 to make bond payments. Traffic on the bridge never met forecasts that were projected when the bonds were sold.

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Transportation industry Florida
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