Legislative Outlook 2012: Roseville Rep. Mindy Greiling Concerned About Emphasis Already on Vikings Stadium

Roseville Rep. Mindy Greiling took time out of her busy schedule to share with the Roseville Patch what to watch for in the upcoming state legislative session. The state legislature reconvenes on Jan. 24.

Patch: What do you see as the key points for citizens to watch for in the state legislature for this year?

Greiling: Since there was not a further deficit in the November forecast, unless the February forecast shows we need to do more cutting or borrowing, that will have to wait until 2013.

Unless we have a bad February [budget] forecast, the session will focus on policy, the bonding bill, stadium and gambling, and if all we focus on is the stadium and gambling, then I would consider it a pretty worthless session.

Patch: What is important for people to watch for regarding the bonding bill?

Greiling: Last year, there was a $500 million dollar bonding bill, and there usually is not one in the first year of the biennium. So, since there already was one, people are going to have to watch to see if there even is one at all. There's supposed to be one every other year, but I think there will be one, and then the question is how big will it be. The Republicans usually want a small bonding bill, and the Democrats usually want a big one because they view it as a way to put people to work.

Patch: How does the loss of the state's AAA bond ratings impact the bonding bill?

Greiling: Since we have lost all three of our AAA bond ratings in Minnesota due to our bad financing, borrowing from the schools and the tobacco funds, then our bonding costs are higher than they should be.

Right now, we're lucky because the bonding rates are low right now.

Patch: You mentioned that the legislators from this area will be meeting with the Roseville City Council in January. How do you see the Legislature affecting Roseville directly this year?

Rep. Greiling: They wanted to discuss having a local option sales tax in the city to pay for things and keep things up, but they haven't discussed it with us yet, so I'm not quite sure what exactly they want about it. It sounded like when I did talk them, it sounded like something more long term, not just for this year.  

Patch: Since education is an area of focus for you, what are some issues surrounding higher and public education in the legislature?

Greiling: I would like to see education finance reform, and not just puting money into the old system, which is turning out to be more relying on property taxes than it should. Gov. Dayton seems to want to work on tax reform and education finance reform in the next biennium. The question is, will the legislative majority, the Republicans, want to do anything in that area or not.

It's more likely that we'll be working on policies. There's tax courses that are coming forward on teacher and principal evaluations, and intergration revenue is being re-thought and re-looked at. Should we have it, and if so, how should the money be redistributed and what shouldn't be allowed to be formed.

Patch: You expressed concerns about the legislative outlook for the new Vikings stadium and gambling. What are your concerns surrounding it?

Greiling: Whenever a team wants a stadium, and you couple that with gambling, that's a very dangerous combination.

The people who want to expand gambling have even more aching hearts for what they want.