MONTGOMERY -- The state Senate's Finance and Taxation -- General Fund Committee today voted 8-0 to appropriate an extra $45.3 million this year from the General Fund for the Department of Corrections, which runs the state prison system.

The committee chairman, Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, said Gov. Robert Bentley's administration requested the supplemental appropriation to protect prisons from the effects of last week's proration announcement by Bentley.

Bentley last week chopped this year's budgeted General Fund spending by $188 million, which for many agencies will lead to a 10.6-percent cut in budgeted spending from the General Fund, a major source of state money for non-education services.

But the supplemental spending bill, Senate Bill 396 by Orr, would restore General Fund spending for prisons to pre-proration levels. Orr said the supplement was needed to prevent early release of prisoners.

Budgeted General Fund spending in this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, would have been $1.92 billion with the extra money for prisons and before proration.

With proration, and assuming the prison supplement becomes law, budgeted General Fund spending will total $1.73 billion this year.