Capitol Staffers Hear Briefing on Transportation Financing
TSRT recently hosted a Capitol staff briefing called "More-Than-Vanilla" Transportation Financing and treated more than 100 Capitol staffers to Austin's famous Amy's Ice Cream.
TSRT's own Bill Noble kicked off the presentation with an overview of Texas' transportation funding situation. According to the 2030 Committee (executive summary here), Texas will need to invest $315 billion over the next 20 years (or $14.3 billion per year) to sustain Texas' infrastructure system and support our highly-productive economy. However, in 2008, Texas only spent $5.2 billion on highway construction according to the State Comptroller.
David Epperson, resident fellow at the UT Dallas Center for Finance Strategy Innovation, was a co-author of the Report of the Legislative Study Committee on Private Participation in Toll Projects, and related to the audience some of the Committee's findings. Epperson outlined the advantages of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) and the advantages of replacing up-front payments with revenue-sharing based on their concerns about strict or difficult buy-back provisions that could be included in project contracts.
Len Gilroy, Director of Government Reform at the Reason Foundation, stressed the need for an open market process when contracting PPP projects in order to ensure a real fair market value. He also gave examples of other states that have successfully contracted and utilized PPPs or are realizing the benefits of PPPs, including Arizona which recently overwhelmingly passed CDA/PPP legislation.
Recent commentary by Gilroy compares Texas and California's business climates (link here) and participation in PPPs (link here).
TSRT's own Bill Noble kicked off the presentation with an overview of Texas' transportation funding situation. According to the 2030 Committee (executive summary here), Texas will need to invest $315 billion over the next 20 years (or $14.3 billion per year) to sustain Texas' infrastructure system and support our highly-productive economy. However, in 2008, Texas only spent $5.2 billion on highway construction according to the State Comptroller.
David Epperson, resident fellow at the UT Dallas Center for Finance Strategy Innovation, was a co-author of the Report of the Legislative Study Committee on Private Participation in Toll Projects, and related to the audience some of the Committee's findings. Epperson outlined the advantages of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) and the advantages of replacing up-front payments with revenue-sharing based on their concerns about strict or difficult buy-back provisions that could be included in project contracts.
Len Gilroy, Director of Government Reform at the Reason Foundation, stressed the need for an open market process when contracting PPP projects in order to ensure a real fair market value. He also gave examples of other states that have successfully contracted and utilized PPPs or are realizing the benefits of PPPs, including Arizona which recently overwhelmingly passed CDA/PPP legislation.
Recent commentary by Gilroy compares Texas and California's business climates (link here) and participation in PPPs (link here).
Posted by Lauren at April 7, 2009 6:12 PM 
Categories: Public-Private Partnerships, Comprehensive Development Agreements, Transportation Financing, Events and Premieres
Categories: Public-Private Partnerships, Comprehensive Development Agreements, Transportation Financing, Events and Premieres
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