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<section article="gsf" article_name="State Finance and Procurement" number="10A-101" title_number="10A" title_name="Public-Private Partnerships" subtitle_number="1" subtitle_name="Definitions; General Provisions">
  <level label="a">
    <text>In this title the following words have the meanings indicated.</text>
  </level>
  <level label="b">
    <text>“Budget committees” means the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee, the House Committee on Ways and Means, and the House Appropriations Committee.</text>
  </level>
  <level label="c">
    <text>“Private entity” means an individual, a corporation, a general or limited partnership, a limited liability company, a joint venture, a statutory trust, a public benefit corporation, a nonprofit entity, or another business entity.</text>
  </level>
  <level label="d">
    <level label="1">
      <text>“Public infrastructure asset” means a capital facility or structure, including systems and equipment related to the facility or structure intended for public use.</text>
    </level>
    <level label="2">
      <text>“Public infrastructure asset” includes blue infrastructure and green infrastructure, as defined in § 9–1601 of the Environment Article.</text>
    </level>
  </level>
  <level label="e">
    <text>“Public notice of solicitation” includes a request for qualifications, a request for expressions of interest, a request for proposals, or any combination thereof.</text>
  </level>
  <level label="f">
    <level label="1">
      <text>“Public–private partnership” means a method for delivering public infrastructure assets using a long–term, performance–based agreement between a reporting agency and a private entity where appropriate risks and benefits can be allocated in a cost–effective manner between the contractual partners in which:</text>
      <level label="i">
        <text>a private entity performs functions normally undertaken by the government, but the reporting agency remains ultimately accountable for the public infrastructure asset and its public function; and</text>
      </level>
      <level label="ii">
        <text>the State may retain ownership in the public infrastructure asset and the private entity may be given additional decision–making rights in determining how the asset is financed, developed, constructed, operated, and maintained over its life cycle.</text>
      </level>
    </level>
    <level label="2">
      <text>“Public–private partnership” does not include:</text>
      <level label="i">
        <text>a short–term operating space lease entered into in the ordinary course of business by a unit of State government and a private entity and approved under § 4–321 or § 12–204 of this article;</text>
      </level>
      <level label="ii">
        <text>a procurement governed by Division II of this article;</text>
      </level>
      <level label="iii">
        <text>public–private partnership agreements entered into by the University System of Maryland, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, Morgan State University, or Baltimore City Community College, where no State funds are used to fund or finance any portion of a capital project; or</text>
      </level>
      <level label="iv">
        <text>a revenue–producing transportation facility under 21.01.03.03B.(1)(d) of  the Code of Maryland Regulations that is not a public–private partnership as defined under paragraph (1) of this subsection.</text>
      </level>
    </level>
  </level>
  <level label="g">
    <text>“Reporting agency” means:</text>
    <level label="1">
      <text>the Department of General Services;</text>
    </level>
    <level label="2">
      <text>the Maryland Department of Transportation, for public infrastructure assets of any of its modal administrations;</text>
    </level>
    <level label="3">
      <text>the Maryland Transportation Authority;</text>
    </level>
    <level label="4">
      <text>the University System of Maryland;</text>
    </level>
    <level label="5">
      <text>Morgan State University;</text>
    </level>
    <level label="6">
      <text>St. Mary’s College of Maryland; and</text>
    </level>
    <level label="7">
      <text>the Baltimore City Community College.</text>
    </level>
  </level>
  <level label="h">
    <text>“Responsibility determination” means the determination by a reporting agency that a private entity that responds to a solicitation for a public–private partnership:</text>
    <level label="1">
      <text>has the capacity in all respects to perform fully the requirements of a public–private partnership agreement; and</text>
    </level>
    <level label="2">
      <text>possesses the integrity and reliability that will ensure good faith performance.</text>
    </level>
  </level>
</section>
