Gazelka Says GOP Wants to Work with Dayton

State Senator Paul Gazelka says he wants to work with the Governor on things that they can agree on, but says the Governor has got to turn down the negative rhetoric.

Gazelka says they balanced the most difficult state budget in modern history last year, turning a $5 billion budget shortfall into an $876 million surplus, without raising taxes.

The session got off to a rocky start when the Republican majority turned down a couple of the Governor's key appointments, and cut the DFL staff budget in half.

Senator Gazelka says Minnesota is better today than it was a year ago. He goes on to say, the legislature has shown that they are willing to make the tough, and sometimes unpopular decisions necessary to reduce the government footprint in the lives of Minnesota citizens.