After more than a year of positive momentum in public-private partnerships (P3) for U.S. infrastructure projects, shifting political winds are disrupting some plans for P3s, even as it becomes clearer that increased spending is needed to build and repair the country's roads, bridges, and tunnels. Only a handful of states have used P3s in a significant way, with lawmakers in many states becoming wary of entering into such long-term contractual arrangements to finance, build, operate, and maintain infrastructure assets. In many cases, decision-makers are focused on short-term benefits--such as lower initial borrowing costs associated with tax-exempt financing and the traditional design-bid-build procurement route than the P3 route that has, particularly for larger, complex deals, the longer-term benefits of transferring performance
