Fresh from passing their final budget bill, Republican state Senators held a news conference Thursday to bash Democrats for failing to offer their own plan or push Gov. Mark Dayton's budget-balancing proposal.

"The Senate DFL has been missing in action from

the debate," said Deputy Senate Majority Leader Geoff Michel, R-Edina. "I think that's worth calling out."

Democrats have spent weeks hammering Republicans for muscling through a budget plan built in part on unproven financial assumptions, possibly illegal actions and deep cuts to DFL strongholds. But Republicans in both chambers reached a milestone early Thursday morning when they finished passing their plan to erase the state's $5 billion projected deficit – without raising taxes.

While Dayton is likely to veto the plan, the GOP has painted Democrats as nuisance opposition with no serious interest in dealing with tough budget choices. So far, Senate Democrats have not introduced their budget for the health and human services department, which gobbles up more than 30 percent of the state budget.

DFLers note that this is no different than when Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty was in office and Democrats controlled the Legislature. In those years, Republican minorities often sat back as Pawlenty and DFL leaders slugged it out to balance the budget.

GOP budget news conference

Democrats held their own news conference, highlighting that Republicans are banking on roughly $828 million in cuts that can't be proven. They say the GOP added in the "phony money" because they can't truly balance the budget without making politically unpopular cuts.

"You can't just make up numbers and then say you have a balanced budget," said Senate Minority Leader Tom Bakk, DFL -Cook.

All of the political bluster might not mean much. Dayton has significant problems with many components of the Republican plan and vowed to veto anything less than a complete budget package.

The two sides have a lot of ground to cover by the May 23 adjournment.

Republicans refuse to accept Dayton's proposal to balance the budget largely through raising taxes on high earners.

Dayton opposes many of the GOP's policy provisions tucked in the budget bills and their proposal for steep reductions in county and city aid, particularly for Minneapolis, St. Paul and Duluth.