Rather than pursue its own highway P3 bill, LA Metro has aligned itself with a larger effort underway now to extend the existing statewide enabling legislation beyond its expiration in 2017. “We would support the extension of the statewide P3 statute,” says Michael Turner, Metro’s Deputy Executive Officer for Government Relations.

Efforts to pass such a bill were unsuccessful last session. The governor’s transportation budget bill calls for the existing P3 law to be reenacted without amendment. Legislative discussions on the larger bill are expected to begin next month and continue for most of the session, says lobbyist Mark Watts, interim executive director of Transportation California, an alliance of unions and contractors supporting P3s.