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Senate OKs pilot to create public-private partnership facilitator with $250,000 pilot appropriation
Summary
The Senate advanced a second substitute for SB133 to create a contract-based facilitator for public-private partnerships (P3s), with a three-year pilot and a $250,000 appropriation to fund a facilitator managed via RFP by GoEd. Sponsors said the contract model avoids creating a new agency and aims to centralize investor-government matchmaking.
The Utah Senate approved a second substitute of Senate Bill 133, a measure that would authorize a contract-based facilitator to help match private investors with public-sector infrastructure projects.
Sen. Hamrick, the sponsor, said the bill does not create a new agency or a permanent state position. Instead, GoEd (Governor's Office of Economic Development) would administer an RFP and award a three-year contract to a facilitator, initially funded with a $250,000 appropriation. The facilitator would connect out-of-state and private investors with state and local government entities that have investment-ready projects, and help assemble transactions without superseding UDOT's existing P3 efforts.
The bill includes a three-year sunset on the facilitator authority, a conflicts-of-interest provision, and clarifying language that limits the facilitator's scope so it does not replace local or agency-led P3 negotiations. "This public private partnership amendments creates a facilitator... it's done via contract, does not create a new agency nor does it create a new position within an agency," Hamrick said.
Senators asked about procurement-code interactions and whether counties or local political subdivisions would be preempted; the sponsor said the facilitator would be a resource, not an exclusive manager, and would work to identify statutory changes that might be proposed to streamline procurement for P3s.
Second substitute SB133 passed a roll-call vote recorded as 28 'yay', 0 'nay', 1 absent and was advanced to third reading.
