"If Mayo is threatening to do this (expansion) someplace else, then it's like the Vikings," said Art Rolnick, a senior fellow at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey School of Public Affairs and longtime critic of such public-financing deals…"The economics are better than with sports teams," argued Steve Parente, a health policy expert at the U. "Mayo is saying: If you give a dollar, we'll give you 10." Most arguments for the Mayo plan, Parente said, have nothing to do with sports. "To be frank, Mayo is competing now against institutions where public purses are opening even on a national scale," he said. Governments in China and Dubai "are dumping money in at levels that would make even California blush."

Similar coverage: Post Bulletin,

Pioneer Press by Chirstopher Snowbeck

Tags: Art Rolnick, Facilities, Finanical, Humphrey School of Public Affairs, Mayo Clinic Rochester, Pioneer Press, public finance, Steve Parente, University of Minnesota