By Rick Pluta, Michigan Public Radio Network
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkar/local-wkar-885988.mp3
LANSING, MI –
The Republican chairman of the Senate corrections budget subcommittee says Governor Granholm's plan for prison spending is already dead and wants her to submit a new one.
AUDIO:
State Senator Alan Cropsey says the governor's plan to close four or five prisons relies too heavily on releasing thousands of inmates. Cropsey says her plan would threaten public safety without saving money in the coming fiscal year. And he says she does not have the votes in the Legislature to get it approved.
"It's DOA in the House and the Senate," he says. "Her policy changes won't fly and she has built it on policy changes that won't fly, thereby giving us a false budget."
Cropsey told the administration he wants to a revised corrections budget in front of his committee by early March.
A spokesman for the Corrections Department says Cropsey and the Legislature are free to make changes they want to the governor's budget proposal.