The budgets Minnesota governors recommend to the Legislature are often dubbed "wish lists." That description is especially apt for the mid-biennium budget DFL Gov. Mark Dayton sent Tuesday to a politically divided legislative branch. It includes a lot of wishes that will be hard for Dayton to fulfill with the state House's GOP majority advancing very different wishes of its own.

Still, House Republicans should give Dayton's budget genuine consideration. It is built around several values Republicans say they hold dear — fiscal prudence, families and children, and economic opportunity for Greater Minnesota. Specifically:

• It's prudent. Dayton says he took to heart what he heard from national economists at a recent governors' meeting — chances are good for a recession by 2018. He proposes consuming just $700 million of the $900 million that the latest forecast said is available to state lawmakers this year. Of that amount, $411 million would be for one-time purposes rather than ongoing obligations. Under his recommendation, state government in 2017 would have a plump $2.5 billion budget cushion and be far better able to weather an economic storm than it was in 2003 and 2009-11.

• It's good for families and children. They would be the beneficiaries of both the tax cuts and the bulk of the new spending Dayton proposes. His $117 million in tax cuts for fiscal 2017 take the form of a credit for child care expenses for low- and middle-income families and a boost in a refundable tax credit for low-income earners with children.

Dayton proposes to help more schools launch preschool programs; provide a $100-per-month boost in the monthly grant afforded by the Minnesota Family Investment Program, the first raise in 30 years; boost child care subsidies for low-income families (and bring that program into compliance with federal requirements), and even install a child care center in the State Capitol complex to serve state employees.

Low-income families also would likely be beneficiaries of the least-specific part of Dayton's budget. It devotes a big chunk of one-time money — $100 million — to an assortment of efforts to narrow the income gap between white and nonwhite Minnesotans. Dayton said the vagueness of that proposal is by design, and he invited legislators and others to help fill in the blanks. We fear that with that approach, Dayton risks not being taken seriously and disappointing communities that are already feeling left behind.

• It would help Greater Minnesota: Dayton seeks $100 million in one-time funds for public-private matching grants for the expansion of broadband Internet service to underserved areas of the state. He also seeks a boost in state aid to cities and counties via a formula-driven program that does much to keep public safety and infrastructure affordable in Greater Minnesota.

Those are two components of the "One State Agenda" the Editorial Board recommended in December. The third is additional investment in transportation — a major sticking point this session.

Dayton's budget makes no concession to the GOP view that a sizable share of this year's surplus, plus future general fund dollars, should be diverted to fuel improvements on roads and bridges, but not transit. Dayton called that a risky move on the brink of a recession. He noted the same flaw in House GOP plans for a property tax cut for businesses and the exemption of Social Security income from state income taxes.

Republicans would do well to emulate Dayton's eagerness to protect the state's fiscal health. Their tax and transportation proposals take an excessive bite out of future state budgets. But for any of this session's wish lists to become accomplishments, both DFLers and Republicans will have to yield more to each other than Minnesotans have seen from either of them to date.