P3s

USDOT's TIFIA office is short of money and has announced it is closing the open door to loan applications that it has operated back to passage of the original Transportation Infrastructure Finance Innovation Act (TIFIA) of 1998.

A commission appointed by New York State Governor David Paterson says there's major potential in  a state program to develop availability payment concessions for bridges.

Investor groups interested in tollroad concessions are putting their pitch in Washington DC for equity to play a major role in reviving the economy. They say $180 billion is available that could generate between 600k and 2m jobs in the US.

Democrat leaders in the Congress James Oberstar and Peter DeFazio write today that the financial markets crisis has heightened their concern over public private partnerships (P3s) and innovative finance, especially what they call "the lack of adequate transparency and public interest protections under these deals."

Dave Aronberg, a Democrat state senator and minority whip seems to be "doing a Carona" - flipping from support of privatization when it isn't controversial to strongly opposing it once a particular project attracts criticism. Aronberg is introducing two bills in the state senate:

- to impose a two year moratorium on signing toll concession/lease agreements on existing facilities