Republicans in the Minnesota Senate want to reduce spending by changing the way the state sets its budget. Rather than using existing appropriations as a starting point, agency budgets for the coming two years would be zeroed-out and lawmakers would then decide how much funding is needed. Eagan Democrat Jim Carlson warns “zero-based budgeting” is expensive to implement. Carlson says, “Everyone would always give lip service to it, but just didn’t seem to work — and I don’t know where it works today.” Bill sponsor, Paynesville Republican Michelle Fischbach responds they may be looking at something like Georgia’s system, “where it’s phased in, so that every ten years everything is looked at, if that would potentially save dollars.” Fischbach adds, “There are things that we can do.”