Great leadership from the Governor on infrastructure.
Schwarzenegger calls for new tack on infrastructure
He wants private firms to partner with the state in building and maintaining roads and other projects.
By Michael Rothfeld
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
9:57 AM PST, November 27, 2007
SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signaled a major push today to engage private companies in the construction and management of state and local infrastructure, adopting a strategy employed in Canada, Britain and elsewhere.
In such partnerships, which could take a variety of formats, the state and municipalities could enter contracts allowing private companies to build and manage roads, schools, waste water treatment plants, and other projects in exchange for rent or revenue paid by consumers, such as tolls.
"Simply put, to keep our economy moving we have to do everything we can to create our infrastructure faster, cheaper and better," Schwarzenegger said this morning at a forum on California's digital infrastructure, sponsored by USC.
"Right now, it's such a new concept with our legislators that they're not there yet 100%," the governor said. "They're concerned about it, they're suspicious about it, what it means."
The Schwarzenegger administration is contemplating a plan, probably requiring state legislation, to create a California agency to oversee state and local public-private partnerships, aides said. Modeled after one in British Columbia, it would be staffed by professional financiers and other experts who could oversee the structuring of deals by both state and local governments.
Schwarzenegger, who championed a $42-billion infrastructure bond that voters approved last year, has said the state needs $500 billion in improvements over the next two decades to catch up and keep up with rapid population growth.
Supporters say public-private partnerships create better efficiency, bring private capital into public projects and create more incentive to run public projects well by tying them to a private profit motive. The strategy could also alleviate the need for the state to increase its already high level of borrowing.
