mn_am1

“I view the deficit as an opportunity,” Republican Marty Seifert told an audience in Alexandria this week on a swing across the state to launch his run for governor in 2010. The former minority leader of the Minnesota House of Representatives said he expects the state’s budget deficit to reach $4 to $6 billion by 2011. But he sees that as a chance to reduce state rules and mandates that would — in theory at least — lead to lower property taxes.

Elsewhere in Minnesota news this morning …

STATEWIDE: High cost of gas hurts rural areas worse. A study confirms it: You can keep ‘em down on the farm, if you charge enough for gas. [Worthington Daily Globe]

WILLMAR: Cuts to local aid hinder effort to lobby for more state aid. It’s a Catch-22, and the man whose caught in the middle is former state Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson, now a lobbyist for the cash-strapped city-county Economic Development Commission, which hasn’t yet set aside money to pay him next year — although its director vow to do so, one way or another. [West Central Tribune] 

MANKATO: Last graffiti vandal nabbed. Thanks in part to downtown surveillance cameras, police say they’ve arrested all five teen boys who went on a rampage last weekend, trashing a buffalo sculpture in Reconciliation Park so badly the artist had to sandblast it clean. [Mankato Free Press]

AUSTIN: Kickball for grownups takes hold. A local league for adults is in its fourth season. [Austin Daily Herald -- great photo there]

BEMIDJI: Reservation/county boundary cuts casino complex in two. The parking lot for a casino under construction on the Red Lake Reservation is actually in Beltrami County — meaning sheriff’s deputies won’t have jurisdiction to follow a fight that starts outside into the gaming building. [Bemidji Pioneer]

DULUTH: Organizers move fest dates to avoid Angels. Spirit Valley Days will happen two weeks early this year so as not to coincide with more than 1,000 Hells Angels coming through on a cross-country motorcycle ride. [Duluth News Tribune]