Minnesota House and Senate conferees reached agreement on a bill that would preserve the state's core health and human services programs while cutting $114 million in the current budget cycle and another $155 million in 2012-13. The measure faces a veto threat from Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who has opposed several provisions. Chief among Pawlenty's objections has been a provision that would move about 37,000 poor, sick Minnesotans from the state's scaled-back General Assistance Medical Care program into an expanded state-federal Medicaid program.
