ST. PAUL — Sitting in a room full of reporters, Minnesota Management and Budget Commissioner Myron Frans’ message to his boss about most Republican’s budget bills was clear: Veto them.

As spring blooms and the Legislature’s focus turns to finalizing a new, two-year state budget, Gov. Mark Dayton has increasingly leaned on his cabinet to make the public case for his vision of Minnesota — and against the budget cuts and major tax relief Republicans in charge at the Legislature have lined up. His commissioners have used a flurry of press conferences, news releases and stops across the state to broadcast their disdain for GOP budget bills, often drawing the ire of Republican leaders.

Dayton’s top tax official recently warned about delays to tax returns if the GOP follows through with heavy cuts to her agency. The commissioner overseeing public health care programs has crisscrossed the state, highlighting potentially painful cuts to mental health care and other services.

But few have been as visible or as vocal as Frans, who has tried to leverage his stature as the state’s top budget wonk into a powerful voice of caution to Republicans who control the Legislature. It’s a new role for the commissioner, who runs an office best known for signing the 35,000-plus paychecks of state employees and cranking out the twice-annual economic projections that guide lawmakers’ work.

“We really wanted to go on the record,” Frans said. “We want to make it very clear to the public what our positions are on the budgets.”

Frans came to the budget office in 2015 after four years as head of the Department of Revenue. With a background as a tax attorney and a short stint as president of a manufacturing and distributing company, he built good will with lawmakers from both sides as a no-nonsense financial expert.