A state House of Representatives budget vote June 9 to close the prison at Newberry has spurred protests throughout the Eastern Upper Peninsula, but one former legislator says some of the commotion may just be partisan politics and thinks funding may be restored when the final state budget is approved, probably late this summer.

Nevertheless, former Newton Township Supervisor Don McArthur said he is rallying a protest cry from all Eastern Upper Peninsula public boards to send a loud message to Lansing that such a cut could have disastrous effects on Luce County and the entire region.

The House budget cut would close the Newberry Correctional Facility in Luce County and the Camp Manistique prison boot camp in Schoolcraft County, affecting 400 prison employees, more than 100 students at Tahquamenon Area School District in Newberry, 20 families in Mackinac County’s Garfield Township, and 27 Newberry Joy Hospital employees who are spouses of the prison workers, said Mr. McArthur, at a meeting of the Mackinac Straits Hospital and Health Center board Monday, June 13, in St. Ignace.

The hospital board subsequently adopted a resolution of protest, to be sent to legislators and to Governor Jennifer Granholm, and Mr. McArthur said he will appeal to the Eastern U.P. chapter of the Michigan Townships Association to get all area township boards to join the protest.

“I’ve been talking to the schools, I’ve been talking to the townships, pretty near just about everybody,” he said. “I’ve been a conservative all my life and I can see a lot of waste in government, and usually I’m out to cut all the corners I can, but this is going to have one big impact on the east central part of the Upper Peninsula.”

The House vote on its budget proposal last Thursday was along party lines, with all 58 Republicans voting for the proposed budget and all 52 Democrats voting against it. Stephen Adamini, a Democrat, represents the 109th House District, which includes Luce, Schoolcraft, Alger, and Marquette counties. Senator Michael Prusi, also a Democrat, represents the 38th Senate District, which includes Luce and Schoolcraft counties, and everything west of them.

One of Mr. McArthur’s colleagues on the hospital board, former Republican State Senator Walter North of St. Ignace, said the vote last week may be less threatening than it appears, if only because it was split so decisively along party lines.

The Michigan Youth Correctional Facility in Lake County, a privately operated facility, was originally proposed by Governor Jennifer Granholm for closing, he noted, “but politics killed” the proposal. Democrats argue that the facility is one of the most costly in the state, and $30 per day more per inmate to operate than the Newberry facility.

Selection of a state-operated prison at Newberry may, Mr. North suggested, be a union versus non-union issue, and that Democrats control the Newberry district in both houses probably is not mere coincidence, either.

He said the budget bickering over Newberry may be “a shot across the bow.”

“I would not be surprised if they both continue after the budget settles out,” he said of the prisons. “I’m hopeful that reason will prevail.”

Mr. North concurred with Don McArthur on prison funding in general, however.

“I’m really not an advocate of prisons as economic spending,” he said, even though he had six prisons and four camps in his Senate district. But when the former Newberry mental hospital was converted to a prison in 1996, at a cost of $15 million to $16 million, he said there was a complete turn-around in the economic vitality of the schools and real estate markets in Luce County, which had been devastated when the state-run hospital was closed.

Gary McDowell, a Democrat from Rudyard who represents the neighboring 107th House District, which includes Mackinac and Chippewa counties, joined other Democrats in denouncing the Republican vote.

“Republicans promised to introduce amendments that would save the two U.P. facilities,” he said in a release, “and Democrats were willing to support those amendments 100 percent. No amendments were introduced in the House of Representatives.”

The house budget proposal, he said, also cuts $2.2 million to Northern Michigan University, takes away health insurance coverage for 1,800 U.P. residents, and cuts nearly $1 million from a program that provides nurses and social workers for care of seniors.

“These cuts,” he said, “are outrageous. Thousands of students are affected by the slice in university funding. Thousands of citizens will lose their health care, and seniors will be forced out of their homes and into nursing homes. This budget harms U.P. jobs, our children, and our parents.”

Senator Jason Allen, a Republican in the neighboring 37th Senate District, which includes Mackinac and Chippewa counties and six downstate counties, noted the day before the House vote that he is working to save the prison.

“I am working with members in both the House and Senate to make them aware of the magnitude that such a closure would have on the Upper Peninsula and the importance of keeping this facility open,” he said.

He said the Senate bill, SB 268, which established the Department of Corrections budget, will come before the full Senate in the coming weeks.

At some point, the House and Senate budget versions must be reconciled and signed by the governor.

Congressman Bart Stupak is also involved in restoring state funds for the U.P. programs. In a letter sent to House and Senate leaders, he estimated about 140 students at Tahquamenon have parents employed at the correctional facilities, 13 percent of the total student population, and that their departure, if they leave the district, could mean a loss of $840,000 in the district’s state education allowance. He also noted that it is not clear where the 1,144 displaced prisoners would be moved and urged the state close the Lake County facility instead.

The Eastern Upper Peninsula Labor Council is also including support for the Newberry area correctional facilities in a State Capitol labor rally scheduled for June 29, the day before legislative sessions end for the summer.