Leveraging Public-Private Partnerships

Investing in collaboration through P3s is critical to securing North Carolina’s infrastructure.

Economic growth, safety, and quality of life improvements are interconnected and dependent on investments in infrastructure.

The private sector can be a solution to those communities that have challenges with maintaining their infrastructure and struggle with environmental compliance and financial challenges. For the private sector, any investment for growth is supported by that growth. They bring their own money to the table and do not depend on tax revenues to support their investments.

As the National Conference of State Legislatures noted, “Increasingly, states have turned to innovative approaches to help solve their infrastructure dilemma. One such innovative technique is the use of public-private partnerships (P3s), and many states are looking at P3s as one tactic as part of a multifaceted solution.”

Transportation

Surging costs from historic storms, revenue shortfalls, widespread project delays, and the COVID-19 pandemic have all contributed to our state’s transportation challenges. Even more alarming, however, are the objective studies showing that North Carolina depends far too heavily on the motor fuels tax to generate transportation revenue.

As growing numbers of motorists adopt electric vehicles (EVs) and vehicle manufacturers commit to ever-higher EV production targets, traditional funding options like the motor fuels tax are becoming less and less viable. And unfortunately, North Carolina is highly dependent on the motor fuels tax to fund transportation projects, with 54.7% of total state transportation revenues provided by this tax, according to the NC FIRST Commission.

States across the nation are grappling with this same challenge, and North Carolina has the chance to become a leader in creating new models for capturing transportation revenue. If we can do this, we stand to create explosive impacts across our economy. If we cannot, we will fall further and further behind other states that choose the path of innovation.

Water and Sewer

One of the most important and challenging issues facing North Carolina is the adequacy of water resources to support rapid growth and economic development. Water security is critical and communities around the state are facing significant investments to upgrade their water and sewer infrastructure. Many of those communities do not have the resources required to make these investments and comply with increasing regulatory pressures.

Broadband

To remain competitive, we must have the best infrastructure possible to connect with the world. North Carolina’s private sector has partnered with our state government to extend broadband service and seen tremendous success.

Public Opinion Supports P3s

According to our research of likely North Carolina voters, there is overwhelming support for public-private partnerships across the board.

It takes collaboration between our private and public sectors to continue the momentum we have as a state. We must remove any barriers to leveraging this path to success for North Carolina.