Cezary Podkul reports here about Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell’s speech at an Infrastructure Investor Conference last Thursday in New York City
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Governor Rendell urged investors to oppose the creation of an Office of Public Benefit to oversee public-private partnerships (PPP) which is included in Chairman Oberstar’s proposed $500 billion 6-year transportation authorization bill.
“We must stop the Office of Public Benefit from being created,” as it will have a “chilling effect on private investment in infrastructure”. Rendell said the powers of this office would essentially amount to a veto power over PPP’s on the nation’s highways, posing a hurdle to private investment just at the time when the US needs it most.
My colleague Bob Poole wrote about the proposal’s flaws here in June. He also looked at the Office of Public Benefit saying ” there is the glaring contradiction in the bill claiming to favor sensible use of tolling and public-private partnerships but creating new federal regulation of same” and “the proposed powers of the new Office of Public Benefit, Tolling Requirements, and Public-Private Partnership Requirements goes far beyond that. ”
We would all agree with the Governor, “We have got to unleash the power of private investment in every way possible.”