A. The General Assembly finds that:

1. There is a public need for timely acquisition, design, construction, improvement, renovation, expansion, equipping, maintenance, operation, implementation, or installation of education facilities, technology infrastructure and other public infrastructure and government facilities within the Commonwealth that serve a public need and purpose;

2. Such public need may not be wholly satisfied by existing methods of procurement in which qualifying projects are acquired, designed, constructed, improved, renovated, expanded, equipped, maintained, operated, implemented, or installed;

3. There are inadequate resources to develop new education facilities, technology infrastructure and other public infrastructure and government facilities for the benefit of citizens of the Commonwealth, and there is demonstrated evidence that public-private partnerships can meet these needs by improving the schedule for delivery, lowering the cost, and providing other benefits to the public;

4. Financial incentives exist under state and federal tax provisions that promote public entities to enter into partnerships with private entities to develop qualifying projects;

5. Authorizing private entities to develop or operate one or more qualifying projects may result in the availability of such projects to the public in a more timely or less costly fashion, thereby serving the public safety, benefit, and welfare.

B. An action under § 56-575.4 shall serve the public purpose of this chapter if such action facilitates the timely development or operation of qualifying projects.

C. It is the intent of this chapter, among other things, to encourage investment in the Commonwealth by private entities and facilitate the bond financing provisions of the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 or other similar financing mechanisms, private capital and other funding sources that support the development or operation of qualifying projects, to the end that financing for qualifying projects be expanded and accelerated to improve and add to the convenience of the public, and such that public and private entities may have the greatest possible flexibility in contracting with each other for the provision of the public services that are the subject of this chapter.

D. This chapter shall be liberally construed in conformity with the purposes hereof.

2002, c. 571; 2003, c. 1034; 2005, c. 865.