Politics & Government

Sen. Claire Robling Ready for Session

The Republican from Jordan, MN, shares some insights and priorities as the Minnesota legislative session begins.

Editor’s note: Check back to see our conversation with Rep. Michael Beard, R-Shakopee.

Sen. Claire Robling, R-Jordan, is getting into gear this week as a fifth-term senator and new assistant majority leader in the Minnesota Senate. She is also the chairwoman of the finance committee and serves on the higher education, local government and elections committees.

With the 2012 Minnesota legislative session convening Tuesday, Robling shared some insights and priorities for 2012. 

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The Vikings Stadium

Robling was among a small team from the area that recently , near . She said Tuesday that while she would hate to have the stadium be the overarching issue of the session, she expects it to be a big one.

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“In the end, it might be the last, best option,” she said, referring to the Shakopee site.

Racino

During a press conference at the State Capitol to announce the Shakopee stadium proposal, Robling said she supports the idea of a racino bill that would add slot machines at . She said she supports it to help pay for a Vikings stadium in Shakopee and, on a larger scale, to potentially pay back “a couple billion” dollars the schools are owed due to previous state accounting shifts.

With several racino bills introduced last year, Robling, who co-authored at least one of them, said she is trying to decide if she should work to combine two of them. One would earmark the funds to cover the education accounting shift and the other would have funds go toward statewide infrastructure, which could include a stadium.

State Budget

“The state budget is mainly my thing,” Robling said. As Finance Chair, Robling is pleased about a current $876 million surplus, although she said it’s not really a surplus. She said that’s because the state must first put $350 million of any surplus into a mandatory cash-flow account and $650 million in a reserve fund. And any money on top of that would repay the school shift, according to Robling. “It’s my job as Finance Chair to try and enforce that,” she said. “We might shift some money around—reprioritize, but not spend more.”

Minnesota State Shutdown After-Effects

Robling said she would also work to change a state government finance bill that forced businesses such as Canterbury Park to shut down when the government did last year. “That should not have happened,” she said, referring to the fact that Canterbury and other businesses had paid their state fees and were up to date. “We are trying to make sure that isn’t a problem in the future,” she said.

Fence at Shakopee Women’s Prison

Robling said she supports state Department of Corrections efforts to wrap and that the latest proposal, with what she called "a nice-looking fence," represents a compromise from earlier proposals. Robling said she will work this session to keep the fence included in Gov. Mark Dayton’s proposed bonding bill.

“This does not look like a typical prison fence,” she said. “I just think it’s time to have that added security."


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