GROVE CITY — A Republican committee cochaired by state Rep. Dick Stevenson, R-8th, heard testimony from businesses that specialize in taking over ailing state infrastructure systems.

The public hearing Tuesday at Grove City College provided GOP officials with business-minded solutions to state budget issues regarding transportation, water facilities, corrections, and parks and recreation.

House Republican Policy Committee members hope to reduce costs plaguing the state by allowing private companies to invest their own funds to help curb those costs.

Committee members see agreements like these, called public-private partnerships, as a win-win situation for both parties because they free up state money from expensive programs while creating business opportunities for companies looking to make a profit.

"I think the theme here is that many public infrastructure systems aren't working," Stevenson said.

By allowing companies to assume most of the responsibility for maintaining facilities, paying employees and operating a large infrastructure system, the state will create an economical and innovative means to fund these systems, Stevenson said.

Representatives from four companies discussed ways their business plans would benefit the state financially.

Officials testifying for Corrections Corporation of America said the company provides relief for overcrowded state prisons by housing inmates elsewhere. CCA sends inmates out of state to be housed in facilities it owns, or it builds facilities in the state and pays taxes on those facilities.

According to Tony Grande, CCA executive vice president, the company was able to house 10,000 California inmates in facilities the company owns in other states, at a rate that is less than what the state pays to house inmates in its own prisons.

Warren Meyer, president of Recreation Resource Management, a company that leases state parks for profit, proposed privatizing parks so they can run more efficiently.

The idea is to hire employees at lower wages to maintain bathrooms and to do custodial work rather than having to pay a full-time park staff, many of which have college degrees.

Meyer's proposal also called for building cabins and campgrounds as a way to generate profit, along with charging entry fees to state parks, a practice that is common in other states, he said.

Currently, state parks see visitors as a cost rather than a way to make profit, Meyer said. In other words, the more people that come to a park, the more money the state has to pay to maintain the park's facilities.

Similar programs were outlined by American Water, which buys water systems and constructs new ones, and by Veolia transportation, a company that manages public transportation systems such as the Port Authority of Allegheny County in Pittsburgh.

The committee is in favor of public-private partnerships as a way to control state government costs, and state Rep. Stan Saylor of York, who is the committee chairman, said the hearing "focused on spending tax money wisely and innovatively."

Also at the hearing were state Reps. Michael Turzai of Allegheny County, Jeff Pyle of Armstrong County, Michelle Brooks of Lawrence County, Scott Hutchinson of Venango County, Donna Oberlander of Clarion County and Randy Vulakovich of Allegheny County.

The next step will be for legislators to introduce legislation that will make it possible for public-private partnerships to be developed in the state, Stevenson said.