Public-Private Partnerships for TZB Project Discussed

State and local governments are searching for ways to pay for critical infrastructure improvements. Last week state Sen. Greg Ball (R-Patterson) hosted a roundtable at the Mount Kisco Public Library with the Business Council of Westchester focusing on how to build public-private partnerships to help fund the work.

Ball, particularly interested in exploring partnerships for the planned new Tappan Zee Bridge, said he plans to craft legislation to allow for its creation.

The Aug. 23 forum was held three days after Gov. Andrew Cuomo sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood seeking federal funding for the new bridge.

Ball said he believed Cuomo would likely agree with the legislation to permit the formation of partnerships.

“The governor is totally on board with this,” Ball proclaimed.

The roundtable panel included Jaime Rall, senior policy specialist for the National Conference of State Legislatures’ Transportation Program; Joung Lee, senior analyst for transportation finance and business development for the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials; Richard Norment, executive director of the National Council of Public-Private Partnerships; and Peter Swiecicki, a partner with Squire Sanders, a law firm involved with several infrastructure financing projects in central and eastern Europe.

Norment explained that a public-private partnership is a contractual agreement between a public agency and a private sector entity. Through this agreement, the skills and assets of both sectors are shared in delivering a service or building a facility. In addition to the sharing of resources, each party shares in the potential risks and rewards, he said.

Rall said “a transportation funding crisis” for projects exists in the United States because of insufficient revenues from federal and state gasoline taxes. Fourteen states haven’t raised gas taxes for more than 20 years, she said.

Rall said public-private partnerships are a way for capital projects to be funded. There are 33 other states that have passed public-private partnership laws for road and bridge projects and those laws spell out policies governing partnerships and how those can be implemented, she said.

Lee stressed that partnerships is not the sole answer. They should be viewed as one “tool in a tool box” by state legislatures, he said. Other states have allowed partnerships for a variety of capital projects including highways, mass transit systems, courthouse construction and water systems, Lee added.

“We are not talking about privatization,” Norment said.

Transferring public assets to the private sector is not involved, he said. Rather, public assets remain under public control, he said.

A public-private partnership could benefit the Tappan Zee Bridge project because of the large price tag, which could climb to as much as $9 billion, Norment said.

He provided the dozens of representatives from the public and private sectors who attended last week’s forum with a series of recommendations, including appointing a “public sector champion” who could serve as spokesperson.

Swiecicki said for the past several years he has been involved in a partnership to construct the A2 toll highway project in Europe. Private industries expect “a return on their investment,” he said. The private sector that takes part in a partnership can receive tolls, for example, Swiecicki said.

After the panelists made their presentations, Ball said he wanted to work on state legislation so a similar system could be implemented for the Tappan Zee Bridge and other capital projects.

On Aug. 20, Cuomo sent off his letter to LaHood appealing for federal funding for the new bridge. That move followed the announcement by the county executives of Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties several days earlier that they supported the project and would vote to include it in the region’s long-term transportation plan at the next New York Metropolitan Transportation Council meeting.

“Today we are one step closer to building a new, safer bridge that will revitalize the Hudson Valley by creating thousands of jobs,” Cuomo’s letter stated in part. “After over a decade of delay caused by political dysfunction, this letter demonstrates that we are making real progress towards constructing a stronger, transit-ready bridge that will reduce congestion and be safer for drivers for years to come.”