FARGO - The idea of private-sector financing for the proposed $1.8 billion Fargo-Moorhead flood diversion received a lot of interest on Capitol Hill Wednesday, said Fargo Mayor Tim Mahoney.
"We're very pleased with the communication today," he said from Washington, D.C.
Mahoney, Moorhead Mayor Del Rae Williams, Darrell Vanyo, chairman of the Fargo-Moorhead Flood Diversion Board of Authority, and city officials met with senators from North Dakota and Minnesota, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials and an official with financial services giant Ernst & Young.
Corps officials told the delegation it has seven projects that could use so-called public-private partnership, or P3, financing and the diversion is the best of them because it already has local funding in place, Mahoney said.
Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., proposed this week a new category of tax-exempt bonds and tax credits for P3 projects. He and Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., said in separate statements Wednesday that they'll continue to press the corps to approve the diversion as a P3 project.
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Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., was in North Dakota, but his staff met with the delegation.
Today, the delegation will visit with congressional staff and advisers to the president, Mahoney said. Williams plans to meet with Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., he said.
Congress has not yet provided funding to build the diversion, which would protect the metro area from a 100-year flood and make it easier to battle a 500-year flood. At the same time, the state of Minnesota has said the project must wait until the state is done with its environmental review, expected this summer.
Fargo City Administrator Pat Zavoral said the delegation had considerable discussion with the senators about the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources review and a lawsuit filed by upstream diversion opponents. He said Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Al Franken, D-Minn., warned the delegation about actions that should and shouldn't be taken until the review is done.
"We understand that," Zavoral said. "They understand the process has to take its course."
Mahoney said the senators outlined different funding scenarios with the delegation as well as hurdles they face. He said he was assured that the Office of Management and Budget, which advises the president, is aware of the proposed P3 financing for the diversion and is interested.
The idea behind P3 is that the private sector can finance and build public infrastructure faster than the federal government can, which saves money. The government would repay financiers over time with interest. The corps has never done P3 projects before, but they have been relatively common at the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Another group interested in the diversion is Ernst & Young, which has coordinated 90 percent of P3 projects in the nation, Mahoney said.
