Vetoed by Governor Steve Beshear

Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to pass a bill that authorizes framework for public-private partnerships for capital projects.

Highlights:

• Authorizes the Commonwealth of Kentucky or a department of the Commonwealth of Kentucky to utilize a public-private partnership as a method of procurement, construction, or financing of capital projects under the provisions required by this bill (Sec. 1). 

• Requires a contracting body, including the governing body of a postsecondary institution, which issues a request for proposal that utilizes a public-private partnership for the financing of a capital project to send a copy of the request for proposal to the Capital Projects and Bond Oversight Committee staff (Sec. 3).

• Requires the General Assembly to authorize a capital project that utilizes a public-private partnership if the total value of the project is more than $25 million (Sec. 3).

• Requires the Kentucky Public Transportation Infrastructure Authority to seek approval from the General Assembly for a highway project that utilizes a public-private partnership and costs more than $100 million (Sec. 7).

• Exempts the governing body of a postsecondary institution from the following public-private partnership requirements if the governing body manages its capital construction projects in accordance with standards established under Kentucky law (Sec. 3):
• Approval from the General Assembly for a capital project that utilizes a public-private partnership if the total value of the project is more than $25 million; and 
• Approval from the Government Contract Review Committee for a public-private partnership agreement. 

• Authorizes the legislative body of a local government to utilize a public-private partnership under the provisions as required by this bill that include, but are not limited to, the following provisions (Sec. 5):
• No property owned by the local government is sold, conveyed, or disposed of in any way or at any time; and
• No leases issued by the local government to a party are transferred in any way by that party.

• Requires a local government that issues a request for a proposal for a project that utilizes a public-private partnership to send a copy of the request for proposal to the Department for Local Government and the Finance and Administration Cabinet (Sec. 5).

• Prohibits a project utilizing a public-private partnership from taking effect unless the local government has submitted and received approval for the project from the Finance and Administration Cabinet (Sec. 5). 

• Requires the Finance and Administration Cabinet to approve or disapprove a local government’s project that utilizes a public-private partnership within 60 days of receiving the proposal for the project (Sec. 5).

• Prohibits a toll from being authorized by any authority as part of a financial plan or development agreement for a project involving the federal interstate highway system that connects the Commonwealth of Kentucky with the state of Ohio (Sec. 14). 

• Requires the Secretaries of the Finance and Administration Cabinet and the Transportation Cabinet to study and develop recommendations to the General Assembly on the implementation process at the state and local level to accept unsolicited proposals by December 31, 2014 (Sec. 3).

Full Bill Text