Senate Bill 66 Summary

• Establishes the Multinational Bridge Authority as a public body corporate within the Department of Transportation to oversee research, planning, design, construction, financing, maintenance, and operation of international bridge crossings between Michigan and Ontario, Canada.

• Authorizes the authority to issue revenue bonds payable solely from qualified revenues (project revenue, Canadian contributions, and federal contributions) without pledging the state's full faith and credit, and limits outstanding bonds to 20% of approved project costs.

• Permits the authority to enter into governance agreements with Canadian public agencies and public-private agreements with private entities for up to 50 years, with provisions for user fee collection, concessionaire oversight, and reversion of control to public agencies upon agreement termination.

• Requires cost-benefit analysis before issuing requests for proposals, public hearings before finalizing agreements, and legislative oversight through a 60-session-day approval period for public-private agreements.

• Exempts the authority's activities and property from state taxation, provides no state funding requirements for project costs after the act's effective date, and automatically repeals the act on January 1, 2015 if no governance agreement is executed by December 31, 2014.