If you talk to any Republican in the General Assembly for long enough, inevitably the complaint will arise that they are too often left at the public policy kids’ table in Maryland. It can’t be easy to be a member of a minority party that can basically be overruled on every substantive vote by its opponent.

Republican leaders have ratcheted up the talk considerably over Gov. Martin O’Malley’s budget, producing quite a rhetorical merry-go-round – Republicans say Democrats never listen to their ideas and Democrats say Republicans never offer any ideas in the first place.

Like most things in Annapolis, there are slivers of truth in each contention. Republicans oftentimes do proffer amendments or their own budgets, but they rarely delve into the type of detail contained in the fiscal plans that pass. House Republicans have often withheld the exact places they would cut from the media for fear the headlines would focus on what the cuts are rather than the overall fiscal health of the state (I’m sure O’Malley can sympathize with that conundrum).

That serves as background to today, when Sen. Ulysses Currie and Del. Norm Conway, the Democratic chairmen of the legislature’s budget committees, sent a letter to Republican leaders about holding a hearing specifically on the Republican Party’s ideas.

“As we move through the budget process this year, we would like to invite your additional participation in the process by offering you the formal opportunity to present your proposals for $3 billion in reductions without the use of fund transfers to the budget committees,” the letter states.

The chairmen suggest to Senate Minority Leader Allan Kittleman and House Minority Leader Anthony O’Donnell that Feb. 23 is a good date.

O’Donnell told me he thinks the Republicans would be “inclined” to participate in the hearing.

“I think this letter is an acknowledgment … that maybe they should have been listening to us all along,” he said.