With no budget completed nearly four months into the session, Senate President Bob Burns is reaching out to individual Senate Democrats in the hopes of picking up votes.

Burns said he is open to talking with Democrats about what they'd like to see in the budget, but he stopped short of saying he was ready to make any deals with the minority party that would significantly alter the GOP's proposal.

"What really I'm interested in is hearing from people – all of the people on this floor – relative to the issues that they feel are important in the upcoming budget," Burns said May 6.

Burns said he is not talking about doing a "major redesign" of the majority's draft budget. But he said he would be willing to work with Democrats individually if they would be willing to support the broad strokes of what the Republicans already have on paper.

"We will take minority votes as long as it fits into the mold-however you want to describe the package," Burns said. "If a budget is developed and we can get support from the minority, that'd be great."  

Democrats said Burns' statement was an indication Senate leadership has realized it won't be able to muster 16 votes within the majority caucus.

"I was told that Senator Burns was getting ready or was ready to talk to individual members as to what would it take for us to vote for the budget and they were willing to listen," said Sen. Amanda Aguirre, a Democrat from Yuma.

Personally, Aguirre said she wants smaller budget reductions to education, the Department of Economic Security, and the Arizona Health Care Containment Cost System. She also said she is concerned about proposals to sweep Department of Agriculture funds.

"I don't know if I'd get what I want because my laundry list is pretty long," Aguirre said.

In an earlier interview, Senate Minority Leader Jorge Luis Garcia said Burns will try first to get votes from the Republican caucus because "we are more expensive than any of his members."

Senate Democrats are holding fast to their position that the fiscal year 2010 budget should not include additional cuts over and above the reductions to the fiscal 2009 budget that were made earlier this year and are expected to be carried forward.

Meanwhile, Burns said he has met with the governor recently to discuss budget details. But the Senate President said they will keep things close the vest until they come out with a final budget plan.

"We are now sitting down to talk, and I think that's a vast improvement," Burns said. "We are starting to share information."

Legislative leaders had been stymied for more than a month in their effort to get Gov. Jan Brewer to divulge how she intends to spend federal stimulus money, despite several informal requests and a letter signed by Burns and House Speaker Kirk Adams.

Without an idea of how the governor plans to distribute the stimulus money, it's difficult to determine just how deep the spending cuts would have to be.