Madison - Republican lawmakers voted Tuesday to trim taxes for corporations and investors while further cutting tax credit programs for the working poor.

The Joint Finance Committee also voted to shut down two youth correctional institutions and repeal early-release provisions for state prisoners. The pair of 12-4 party-line votes came as the powerful committee entered a marathon week of work that could stretch into Saturday as GOP lawmakers strive to approve the budget by the end of June. The bill must still be approved by both houses of the Legislature and signed by Gov. Scott Walker.

The committee also made changes to taxes on moist snuff tobacco, the state's system for distributing beer and a child care program for the poor.

Rep. Tamara Grigsby (D-Milwaukee) called the committee's action to cut the Earned Income Tax Credit for low-income workers "Robin Hood in reverse."

"We have our priorities very, very backwards," Grigsby said.

But Republicans said the state tax credit program was generous and that changes needed to be made to ensure the state balanced a $3 billion budget deficit over the next two years and still gave businesses incentives to create jobs.

"What we're trying to do is grow jobs, so it's very much in keeping with our agenda," said Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills), co-chairwoman of the committee.

The cuts to the earned income credit would total $56.2 million over two years, $12.7 million more than the cuts proposed by Walker, according to the Legislature's nonpartisan budget office. The Legislative Fiscal Bureau has described Walker's proposal as a state income tax increase, though some of those refunds from the credit go to state residents who have no income liability.

In other action, the committee approved:

Walker's proposals to cut capital gains taxes on certain investments.

One would completely eliminate state capital-gains taxes on long-term investments - they must be held at least five years - in Wisconsin businesses beginning with purchases made in 2011. The other would defer taxes on capital gains reaped anywhere if the proceeds are plowed back into a Wisconsin business.

The proposals would cut taxes by an estimated $36 million over the next two years and much more in future years, as the first proposal starts in 2016.

Walker's proposal to cut taxes for multistate corporations. That would partly roll back the so-called "combined reporting" tax increases passed by Gov. Jim Doyle and Democrats in 2009 and reduce taxes by $46 million over two years.

A proposal to prohibit brewers from buying wholesale beer distributors in Wisconsin. The proposal would have an exemption for small brewers that make less than 300,000 barrels of beer a year. The change is supported by MillerCoors, but Brian Schimming, a lobbyist for the Wisconsin Brewer's Guild, said the group is concerned about the provision and will be reviewing it.

Changing the tax on moist snuff from one based on the price of the tobacco to one based on weight, at a rate of $1.76 per ounce. The change, which is not projected to decrease overall state taxes, is being pushed by Altria, the parent company of Philip Morris USA.

Health First Wisconsin, which represents Smoke Free Wisconsin along with other state health advocacy groups, is arguing that the proposed weight-based tax would give an unfair tax advantage to U.S. Smokeless Tobacco, another company owned by Altria, because it manufactures smokeless tobacco products that are far lighter than those of other manufacturers.

Moist snuff brands represented by U.S. Smokeless Tobacco include Marlboro Snus and Skoal Pouches. While a typical container of moist snuff weighs around 1.2 to 1.5 ounces, newer products produced by U.S. Smokeless Tobacco weigh as little as 0.1 ounces, according to Health First.

David Sutton, a spokesman for Altria, said that the current system provides a "tax advantage for lower priced brands."

Requiring the state to establish an incentive program to reward counties that find fraud in the Wisconsin Shares child care subsidy, funded from the money set aside for the program. The committee also voted to prohibit payments for the care of a child that is provided by the child's parent.

Republicans also advanced Walker's proposal to shut down by July 1 the youth correctional institutions Ethan Allen School in the Town of Delafield and Southern Oaks Girls School in Union Grove. Juvenile offenders, including many from southeast Wisconsin, are being transferred from those institutions to the Lincoln Hills correctional facility in Irma in Lincoln County, about four hours from Milwaukee.

"It doesn't make sense to have three," said Rep. Robin Vos (R-Rochester), co-chairman of the committee.

That proposal would save taxpayers $23 million a year, according to the state Department of Corrections.

The committee also was expected to vote to change state law to allow counties to house juveniles in their own facilities or those of other counties for up to 180 days, instead of the current 30 days. That could save counties money because of the high daily rates they have to pay the state for housing juveniles.

Vos said Republicans would include ending early release for prisoners as part of the budget. But if a bill to do that clears the Legislature soon, they will take that out of the budget. Similar, separate legislation has passed the Senate, and the Assembly has given it preliminary approval, with final approval expected on June 8.

Early release was passed by Democratic lawmakers and Doyle as part of the 2009-'11 budget in an attempt to find savings and help solve a massive budget deficit by revising the state's truth-in-sentencing law.

From Oct. 1, 2009, through April 26 of this year, 526 prisoners were given early release, and 29 have since returned to prison for committing a new crime or having their parole revoked, state Department of Corrections spokeswoman Linda Eggert said.

The committee left in one early-release provision that allows a judge to order an inmate into a risk reduction program. That would allow state corrections officials to release inmates who follow their treatment plan and serve at least three-quarters of their sentence.

Republicans say higher spending on prisons was justified, saying a prison building boom in Wisconsin in the 1990s has helped lower crime rates since then.

Democrats counter that states with lower incarceration rates had seen similar drops in crime rates. The state spends about $1.1 billion a year in state tax dollars on prisons.

The committee also approved $770,000 more over two years for DNA analysis at the state Crime Lab, which in the past suffered from a large backlog that slowed the pace of criminal investigations and prosecutions in the state.

Patrick Marley and Emma Roller of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.