Republicans Promise To Work Together To Put Coloradans Back To Work

DENVER (CBS4)- Republican lawmakers are getting ready for the 2012 legislative session. This year they're promising to work with their Democrat counterparts on finding solutions to major issues facing Colorado, including job creation and budget cuts.

"It is true that Republicans and Democrats have their differences and that will be the case this session, but last legislative session we passed a state budget with broad bipartisan support, Republicans and Democrats working with each other. This year I suspect, in fact I'm optimistic, that on the important issues we'll have that same type of bipartisan discussion. From our perspective, Republicans need to clear the way so that small businesses can create jobs," said House Speaker Frank McNulty, a Republican representing Highlands Ranch.

McNulty said Republicans are ready to get to work on boosting Colorado's economy by focusing on helping business.

"Our agenda is simple: get government out of the way and help businesses create jobs. The regulatory environment in this state has got to become easier so that small businesses can do what they do best, and that's grow and that's what drives our economy," said McNulty.

Colorado lawmakers must cut $700 million from the current state budget during this legislative session. McNulty said Republicans will make responsible decisions on where to scale back.

"Our Republican budget negotiators are going to focus on prioritizing money for K-12 education and beyond that we are going to have discussions and I think there will be reductions in spending again this year but hopefully we'll find that same bipartisan and common ground that we found last year," said McNulty.