Delivering Performance-Based Partnerships by Leveraging Private Investment and Accountability to Unlock Public Capital at Scale

摘要

Stormwater is a growing, unfunded mandate and environmental challenge, which has become a burden on local government's budgets, and impedes local development and overall economic growth in communities nationwide. To partially offset the unfunded mandate several programs have been created that offer subsidized financing below the costs of municipal general obligation bonds. However, these subsidized funding programs can have rigorous application requirements that require significant resources and time; have restrictions on the scopes and uses of the money that limit broader public co-benefits; and require the applicant to have already invested significant dollars to confirm feasibility, obtain permitting, and determine pricing surety. These requirements on municipalities and public water authorities create barriers for them to access this subsidized capital at a scale large enough to make significant progress towards achieving regulatory compliance. Alternatively, traditional long-term private financing options available for infrastructure programs can be costly and make public officials hesitant to make such a large revenue commitment in advance of the work being completed.