Colorado § 24-94-101 - Legislative declaration.

§ 24-94-101. Legislative declaration.

(1) The general assembly hereby finds and declares that:

(a) Public-private partnerships are an effective tool to leverage the expertise and resources of both the public and private sectors to accommodate multifaceted social infrastructure and operational needs;

(b) Public-private partnerships have a proven track record of enabling public projects to be completed on time and at a lower cost than either the public or private sectors are able to achieve alone;

(c) Delivering public projects through public-private partnerships is an effective model to accommodate some of our state's most pressing and foundational needs, such as increased behavioral health capacity, broadband deployment, affordable housing development, and child care services;

(d) The COVID-19 pandemic forced the closure of many child care facilities and classrooms, exacerbating a child care shortage that forced many parents to compromise between work and family life; and

(e) Colorado families have long struggled with the cost of child care and it remains one of the primary barriers to full participation in the workforce.

(2) The general assembly further finds and declares that it is the intent of this article 94 to permit state public entities to enter into public-private partnerships to:

(a) Develop, build, finance, operate, and maintain quality, cost-effective public projects that provide economic and social value;

(b) Provide a well-defined and transparent process to facilitate collaboration between state public entities and private partners while enabling access to private capital;

(c) Bring innovative thinking and approaches to public projects;

(d) Reduce total life-cycle costs of public projects; and

(e) Allow for cost, risk, and benefit sharing between public and private partners.

Source: L. 2022: Entire article added, (SB 22-130), ch. 232, p. 1709, § 2, effective May 26.