Topeka ? Gov. Bill Graves on Tuesday blasted Democrats who said he hasn’t done enough to fix the state’s budget problems.

On Aug. 15, Graves whittled the budget by $41 million  less than 1 percent  in the face of a shortfall expected to be hundreds of millions of dollars.

Democratic budget leaders said the term-limited Graves was doing too little too late, leaving the next governor with a giant revenue gap in January.

Graves, a Republican, responded bluntly, saying the Democrats’ “whining and complaining about it isn’t going to help them solve their problem.”

He said that during the past legislative session, Democrats refused to help increase taxes and had no recommendations on cuts.

“Now they think that it’s my responsibility to clean up their work for them. They’ve made a bed that they get to lie in,” he said.

Democrats, vastly outnumbered by Republicans in the Legislature, proposed several tax increases during the session, but the measures were rejected. They also proposed cuts that were rejected, too.

The Legislature eventually adopted $300 million in sales, gas, cigarette and inheritance tax increases. But even with the increases, Graves made cuts because tax revenue continues to fall behind projections.

Rep. Rocky Nichols of Topeka, the ranking Democrat on the House budget-writing committee, recently criticized Graves’ cuts. Graves had said the cuts were enough to keep budget reserves out of the red for the next few months, but Nichols maintained state law required cuts that would keep the budget out of the red for the entire fiscal year.

After hearing Graves’ comments, Nichols said the governor had his facts wrong.

Nichols said two years ago, Democrats and Republicans in the House crafted a budget that would have cut $150 million in administrative expenses and avoided many of the current budget problems.

But those reductions were vetoed by Graves, Nichols noted.

Asked to respond to Graves’ remarks, Nichols said, “Great. He’s the governor. He’s a good guy; I still like him, but his comments are untrue.”