We saw this throughout the whole layering, you had duplication of positions that could have been consolidated, but they didn't. Coming to terms While traditional government budgeting focuses on specific line items for specific expenses, performance-based budgeting shifts the focus to program results, aiming for accountability in the quality, quantity, efficiency and effectiveness of government services. The trick is to build objective and effective ways to measure that success. Zero-base budgeting differs in that it does not assume the current level of funding will be maintained but uses zero as the starting point. A modified system, for instance, could automatically pare back the base budgets of departments to 75 percent of the current level as a starting point and the Legislature could add more money if the expenditures meet with its priorities.
People come in and talk about generalities.
Some level of cutting at the base needs to be assumed, Pawlenty contends. And he'd like to see it implemented during the next biennial budget. For instance, budgeteers could set up a rotating schedule where one-third of the budget would be stripped down to zero every two years until the entire budget was overhauled in six years. We've got to test it. We've got to work the wrinkles out of it and smooth those over.