(a)    In this title the following words have the meanings indicated.

(b)    “Budget committees” means the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee, the House Committee on Ways and Means, and the House Appropriations Committee.

(c)    “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.

(d)    “Public infrastructure asset” means a capital facility or structure, including systems and equipment related to the facility or structure intended for public use.

(e)    “Public notice of solicitation” includes a request for qualifications, a request for expressions of interest, a request for proposals, or any combination thereof.

(f)    (1)    “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:

(i)    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

(ii)    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.

(2)    “Public–private partnership” does not include:

(i)    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;

(ii)    a procurement governed by Division II of this article;

(iii)    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

(iv)    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.

(g)    “Reporting agency” means:

(1)    the Department of General Services;

(2)    the Maryland Department of Transportation, for public infrastructure assets of any of its modal administrations;

(3)    the Maryland Transportation Authority;

(4)    the University System of Maryland;

(5)    Morgan State University;

(6)    St. Mary’s College of Maryland; and

(7)    the Baltimore City Community College.

(h)    “Responsibility determination” means the determination by a reporting agency that a private entity that responds to a solicitation for a public–private partnership:

(1)    has the capacity in all respects to perform fully the requirements of a public–private partnership agreement; and

(2)    possesses the integrity and reliability that will ensure good faith performance.