Commenters made a number of other suggestions for reducing financial impediments to the formation of public-private partnerships including:
∙ Eliminate Federal matching requirements on public-private partnerships using Federal funds.
∙ Qualify early engineering and development costs for Federal participation.[353]
∙ Encourage State and Federal participation in the funding of development expenses incurred by those pursuing public-private partnerships by creating Federal guidelines for a mechanism that would reimburse the private sector for development and other related costs.[354]
∙ Allow for Federal funds to participate in privately-owned parking facilities. [355]
∙ Allow for a private sector return on investment significant enough for the private sector to take on the increased risks of public-private partnerships.[356]
∙ Provide greater flexibility to the "Public Trust Doctrine," which enables State DOTs to take an easement for right-of-way and use it for a public purpose. With the most recent budget crisis that plagued many State DOTs, it may be helpful to broaden the definition of "public benefit" to cover those cases where a non-transportation project within the right-of-way produces a funding stream for the State DOT. An example would be to lease right-of-ways to entities that provide services to the transportation industry. The entities would provide the motoring public with a service with easy access and also provide the State DOTs with an additional stream of funding.[357]