Citizens for Rebuilding PA Launches Today
A new blog dedicated solely to informing and educating thought leaders on the need for public-private partnerships (P3s) to promote infrastructure development, community investment and improved public services was launched today.
“People of every political stripe and persuasion agree that public-private partnerships are a good way to address some of the vexing infrastructure investment challenges facing our communities and our state, but we’re still dickering over the details while our economy continues to stagnate,” noted Roy Wells, managing director of Triad Strategies, LLC, one of the early stakeholders in Citizens 4 Rebuilding Pennsylvania. “We believe that we can constructively move the P3 discussion to a successful conclusion by focusing on what is working elsewhere in the nation and in the world.”
Frank M. Rapoport, a senior partner at the law firm of McKenna Long and Aldridge LLP (MLA) and chair of MLA’s Global Infrastructure and Public-Private Partnerships practice in the firm’s Pennsylvania office, applauded the new blog. “It’s time for Pennsylvania to join 33 other states with P3 authority that permits using private capital and innovative project delivery to build new roads, schools and mass transportation solutions,” said Rapoport.
Access to the blog, which includes a daily news summary on P3 developments around the country as well as observations and commentary about ways P3s can and are being used, is open to any Pennsylvanian by logging on to http://www.citizens4rebuildingpa.com/?file=subscribe.
Marcus Lemon, another senior member of the MLA’s Global Infrastructure and P3 practice also praised the blog. “Pennsylvania is the perfect state for successful utilization of private capital and innovative project delivery tools to improve its vast array of aging infrastructure such as highways, bridges, and water systems – with this effort providing the most effective vehicle for Pennsylvania to be on the cutting edge of this emerging opportunity,” Lemon said. As a former Federal Highway Administration Chief Counsel, he was instrumental in the development of several successful P3 initiatives and the development of multiple tolling and congestion relief projects of national significance.
Wells said the blog is one of the outcomes of an informal coalition of companies and organizations supporting P3s in Pennsylvania. “We were meeting in Philadelphia and realized that while plenty of people were talking about public-private partnerships, there was no single clearinghouse for information yet in the Keystone State.”
Rapoport has presented testimony before the Pennsylvania General Assembly that would allow P3s to be used as a tool to rebuild the commonwealth’s infrastructure. “This blog will be a key educational tool for both citizens and government officials on innovative financing strategies of P3s,” he said.
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