The city of Starkville is looking for a solution that doesn’t involve raising taxes after the failed municipal facilities bond referendum in September.
During a Board of Aldermen work session Tuesday, public purchasing officer and Starkville resident Taylor Adams gave the board a presentation on the growing trend and benefits of public-private partnerships to construct government or municipal facilities.
Adams, president of the Mississippi Association of Governmental Purchasing and Property Agents, said local partnerships such as CottonMill Marketplace and Mississippi State University dining services are examples of private companies operating government assets in a for-profit model.
Adams said common partnerships being implemented across the country involve water and wastewater management and transportation. While the public sector provides legal authority and capital resources — in Starkville’s case, land — the private sector can reduce a municipality’s investment with its own cash flow and personnel development.
“We’ve consistently seen in the marketplace that the reward is not just being tax neutral, but the quality of the end product makes this work,” Adams said.
Adams’ services, which would include assistance with contracts with private companies, would be free of charge until the city enters into a contract. The city didn’t take any action on securing Adams’ services.
Adams said performance enforcement and maintaining transparency are possible disadvantages to striking a public-private partnership but facilities often are completed quicker and both sectors experience growth.
Mayor Parker Wiseman said the proposed tax increase and $8.45 million price tag for a new police station were the two main reasons the bond issue failed.
“You take all that together and it leaves us with a monumental challenge: We’ve got to strive to meet a need that’s widely recognized as important,” Wiseman said. “We’ve got to ultimately seek a way to fund without a tax increase. That’s not easy at all. The partnerships can offer a way to lower the cost and offer potential economic development opportunities. That seems to have a lot of upside.”
In other business, the board had a teleconference with Demery Grubbs of the Jackson-based firm Government Consultants Inc. to discuss its capital improvement program.
Grubbs shortened a list of 130 projects, which include infrastructure and equipment needs and street projects, to 79. He instructed the board to shorten that list from 79 to 54 by grading each product on an A, B, C scale.
Project costs range from as low as $5,775 for drainage projects to $4.5 million for highway repairs.
The board will clear any duplicates on the list and include any unpaved roads within the city limits on the list before returning it to Grubbs by Dec. 6. The board will likely hold an in-person work session with Grubbs before Christmas.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
