Gov. Pawlenty proposed $734 million worth of cuts and changes in health and human services spending. Highlights from his ideas for that area of the budget:
• Replace $387 million in state spending on Medicaid with anticipated federal stimulus money.
• Cut grants for a child-care program by 5 percent, saving $4.6 million.
• Eliminate coverage for most adults for physical and speech therapies that have been provided by two state health care programs, saving $1.8 million.
• Cut childless adults from MinnesotaCare if they make more than $8,100 a year (75 percent of federal poverty level), saving $130 million and eliminating about 21,500 people from the state-subsidized health insurance program.
• Eliminate a nutrition program for poor people with special diet needs, saving $3.2 million.
• Reduce payment rates for chemical dependency treatment providers, saving $5.3 million.
• Reduce payment rates for most long-term-care providers, saving $37 million.
The proposed local government aid cuts would affect cities and counties, small and large. Here's a sampling of the proposed cuts local governments expected for their budgets:
• Minneapolis (population 390,131): $30 million cut
• Hennepin County (pop. 1.2 million): $31 million cut
• St. Paul (pop. 288,055): $13 million cut
• Ramsey County (pop. 517,398): $12 million cut
• Washington County (pop. 234,348): $4 million cut
• Silver Lake (pop. 812): $53,000 cut
• Eagan (pop. 65,847): $53,523 cut
