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HELENA - Republicans cutting back requests for prison spending are predicting the state will see far fewer prisoners than the administration forecast.

The alternative GOP budget is based on an assumption that inmate growth will be 4 percent a year for the next three years. The Gov. Brian Schweitzer administration predicts a population growth of 7.5 percent.

Schweitzer's budget director said the money is needed to deal with continued population growth, which outside experts have confirmed. David Ewer said the administration would rather spend the money elsewhere.

"Do you think we would ask for more money for corrections if we didn't need it?" Ewer told the House Appropriations Committee. "Do you think we enjoy putting large, substantial state resources into the Department of Corrections?"

Ewer said the Republicans need to be realistic about prison growth. Agency staff said prison population growth has accelerated in recent years from 4 percent to 7 percent last year.

The Republican budget bill increases spending from general tax money on corrections by $44 million, to roughly $300 million. Schweitzer is seeking about $340 million.

Opponents to the Republican alternative said the state has to live up to its obligation to house prisoners, especially since it has increased the penalties for many crimes in recent years.

"If we're hard on crime, we have to pay for it as well," said lobbyist and former Butte lawmaker J.D. Lynch.

Republican Rep. Dave Kasten of Brockway said fiscal conservatives will pay their bills.

"If we put people into a corrections facility, we are going to take care of them," he said.

The committee was in the second day of budget hearings expected to run through Thursday.

Republicans are pushing six bills that stand as an alternative to the single budget bill from Schweitzer, which was already killed in the Republican-controlled committee.

The GOP says the governor's budget overspends, while Democrats say the GOP budget recklessly charts a new process and ditches 30 years of budget tradition.

The committee also heard the GOP's university system budget proposal on Tuesday, which spends $34 million more in general tax money, to about $332 million. The governor had been seeking about $337 million in his budget bill.

Later in the day, the panel was scheduled to make a decision on budget proposals heard a day earlier, including the welfare, natural resources and commerce budgets.

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