By Richard Cooper, Luke Barefoot, Adam Brenneman and Antonio Pietrantoni ( July 19, 2017, 11:00 AM EDT) -- If there is one thing that all stakeholders in Puerto Rico's fiscal crisis can agree on (and there are likely not many such things), it is that, without real economic growth, the commonwealth of Puerto Rico will neither be able to repay its creditors nor offer its residents a viable, let alone prosperous, future. The recently certified fiscal plan of the commonwealth calls for sizable reductions in government expenditures, significant increases in overall revenue collections, the right-sizing of Puerto Rico's bloated government, labor reform, unprecedented adjustments to public pension systems, and a litany of regulatory reform and other measures to facilitate new business formation. But when it comes to driving economic growth, particularly over the short term, the commonwealth and the certified fiscal plan are relying heavily on the entry into a series of public-private partnership (PPP) transactions to jump-start the economy, contemplating approximately $5 billion of new investment over the next two years.[1] In particular, the commonwealth's certified fiscal plan identifies energy, waste management and transportation projects among key target areas for these transactions, and public corporations such as the Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority (PRASA), the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) and the Puerto Rico Highways and Transportation Authority (HTA) similarly envision PPP transactions playing an important role in their turnaround strategies.[2]...