FOREWORD

Founded in 1932, the Citizens Budget Commission (CBC) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan civic organization devoted to influencing constructive change in the finances and services of New York State and New York City governments. A major activity of the Commission is conducting research on the financial and management practices of the State and City.

All research by the CBC is overseen by a committee of its Trustees. This report was prepared under the auspices of the Public-Private Partnerships Committee, which we chair. The other members of the Committee are: Paul R. Alter, Paul T. Bader, Kenneth W. Bond, Lawrence B. Buttenwieser, James S. Chanos, Herman R. Charbonneau, Cheryl Cohen Effron, Bud H. Gibbs, Kenneth D. Gibbs, Walter L. Harris, Peter J. Kiernan, Robert Kinney, David N. Lebenstein, Robinson Markel, Joel H. Moser, James S. Normile, Steven M. Polan, John Rhodes, Michael L. Ryan, Richard L. Sigal, Joan Steinberg, Mark Strauss, Mark E. Strauss, and James L. Lipscomb, ex-officio.

The Committee's work focused on analyzing the range of experience with public-private partnerships (PPPs). As this report describes, these partnerships have been used globally for some time and are starting to gain momentum in the United States and emerge in New York; however, public debate on the merits of these partnerships has not always been informed by the lessons learned from prior experiences. This report analyzes the evidence and concludes that PPPs can be a useful tool in improving infrastructure management; however, they must be employed selectively and cautiously, and the report suggests some assets which may benefit from their application.

The report was researched by Maria Doulis, Senior Research Associate, and written by Maria Doulis and Charles Brecher, Director of Research and Executive Vice President. The authors and the Committee would like to thank William Reinhardt for providing a copy of his invaluable database of PPP projects, and Michael E. Sibilia, Chief Financial Officer of JFK International Air Terminal LLC, and David Kagan, Assistant Director of Business, Properties and Airport Development at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, for sharing their perspectives on the Terminal Four partnership. The authors and the Committee are also grateful to all those who reviewed a preliminary draft of the paper and offered their perspective: Marcia Van Wagner, Deputy Comptroller for the Budget; Preston Niblack, Director of the New York City Council Finance Division; Ronnie Lowenstein, Director of the New York City Independent Budget Office; Paul Francis of Bloomberg LP; Terri Matthews, Senior Policy Advisor at the New York City Department of Design and Construction; and Iris Weinshall, Vice Chancellor for Facilities Planning, Construction, and Management at The City University of New York. We thank them for their cooperation and for their helpful comments in the course of research for the paper, though that does not mean they necessarily endorse the views presented within it.