Our friends at the Mackinac Center in Michigan make the case for privatizing state fairs–there are similar events done privately all over the country, and government funded state fairs often drain state coffers (not just in Michigan, but also Colorado and Utah) . In fact, a word of warning–avoid “privatizing” the way Utah did. Their non-profit corporate state fairs still sucks around $600,000 a year out of taxpayer funds and isn’t progressing towards self sufficiency as intended.