Review of Public/Private Partnership Proposals (SB 541) (language only)

Item 4-5.11 #1s

Language
Page 511, following line 43, insert:
"4-5.11 PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS
a.  Public Private Partnership Advisory Commission  
1.  Any responsible public entity seeking to consider a public-private partnership shall notify and involve the Public Private Partnership Advisory Commission in accordance with the requirements set forth in Senate Bill 541.  The responsible public entity shall cooperate with the Public Private Partnership Advisory Commission and shall provide briefings, documents and analysis as necessary to understand the partnership before approving the project.
2. The Public Private Partnership Advisory Commission shall notify the responsible public entity when the Commission will conduct a review and the Commission shall provide its findings and recommendations within 45 days of receiving the detailed proposal.  However, no responsible entity will sign a final comprehensive agreement for a qualifying project until the responsible entity determines what actions, if any, the Commission has taken.  In those circumstances, where the responsible public entity receives finding and recommendations from the Commission, the responsible public entity must provide the Commission with a written response on how it has addressed the recommendation before entering into either an interim agreement or final comprehensive agreement.
3. The Public Private Partnership Advisory Commission shall provide a written report to the General Assembly regarding their review of qualifying projects and the actions by the responsible public entity to address their recommendations.
b.  Other Matters
1. The Secretary of Finance shall set and execute standard financial review and analysis procedures prior to any state entity finalizing an interim or final comprehensive agreement.  The standards shall include, at a minimum, a cost-benefit analysis, an assessment of opportunity costs, and consideration of the results of all studies and analyses related to the proposed qualifying project.
2. Upon approval of an interim or final comprehensive agreement, the responsible public entity shall provide the Governor, the Chairmen of the House Appropriation and Senate Finance Committees, and the Auditor of Public Accounts with quarterly status reports on the progress of the project, including work completed to date, project expenditures, and expenditures by state agencies to support the project, if applicable.
3. If applicable, the Director of Department of Planning and Budget, is authorized to transfer funds from other agencies to agencies as needed to pay for costs directly associated with the public private partnership, provided, however, that such transfers are reported to the Chairmen of the House Appropriations and Senate Finance Committees, as provided by this act.  
4.  The Director of Department of Planning and Budget with the State Comptroller shall establish a separate budget and accounting of non capital outlay public private partnership projects to determine the amount of current resources budgeted for the qualifying project, costs under the projects and take steps to isolate and capture any excess budgeted resources over the partnership project costs.  The Director of Department of Planning and Budget shall not authorize the agencies to use the budgeted funds for the qualified project for any other purpose.  The Director of Department of Planning and Budget with the State Comptroller shall report this information semi-annually to the Governor, the Chairmen of the House Appropriation and Senate Finance Committees, and the Auditor of Public Accounts.
5. Pursuant to section 4-701 of this act, the Director, Department of Planning and Budget may affect the position level of involved agencies for this purpose of a qualifying public private partnership project.  Any such changes shall be reported to the Chairmen of the House Appropriation and Senate Finance Committees, as provided in this act.  The Director of Department of Planning and Budget shall not authorize agencies to use funding resulting from reductions in position levels for any purpose other than paying for a qualifying public private partnership project and all budgeted funding in excess of the cost of the qualifying public private partnership projects shall be accounted for in accordance with b4 above.
6. For public private partnerships involving the construction of capital assets, the responsible public entity shall comply with the conditions outlined in Part 2 of this Act, including the conditions applicable to alternative financing.
7. If the public private partnership’s alternative financing mechanism involves cost recoveries over and above amounts already collected through existing or planned collection activities, there is hereby created a special fund in the State Treasury.  All additional cost recovery activities shall be deposited to this fund, subject to terms and conditions set out in an agreement between each affected agency and the vendor.
8. Any such revenues derived from federal funds shall not be deposited to the Fund but shall be returned to the applicable federal source.
9. No funds may be transferred or expended from this Fund except by legislative appropriation, which shall be based solely on funds already collected and not on projected collections.
10. For public private partnerships that result in capital leases, the responsible public entity shall comply with the conditions outlined in §4-4.00 of this Act, including the conditions requiring the Treasury Board approval."

Explanation
(This amendment provides for the review of Public Private partnerships as required by SB 541.)