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Jerry Zhao, assistant professor at the Humphrey Institute, weighs in on a CNN.com report outlining the costs and benefits of privatizing Minnesota's public assets to help relieve budget pressures:

"Some recent cases of [public-private partnerships] of transportation facilities have led to widely spread concerns on whether the public interest is protected in these concessions," Zhao says. "Some services tend to be reserved for the public sector because of their 'public good' nature that won't be factored into consideration by profit-oriented businesses.

"Without careful research, a desperate rush into selling or leasing public facilities may lose value on public assets, lose long-term interests of the public in the exchange of short-term budget benefits, and lose democratic control."

Read the entire entry at CNN.com and check out Jerry's blog at http://blog.lib.umn.edu/zrzhao/fiscalissues/.