LANSING — The Senate Appropriations Department of Corrections Subcommittee approved a 2012 budget Thursday that protects public safety while spending $100 million less than the department’s current-year budget and $75 million less than the governor proposed, said Cass County’s Sen. John Proos, chair of the subcommittee.

“Public safety continues to be the number-one priority in this budget,” said Proos, R-St. Joseph. “This budget plan is the result of months of hard work to eliminate wasteful spending and make the department more efficient. In doing so we have crafted a budget that will keep violent felons off the street and also help solve the state’s budget deficit.”

Senate Bill 173, the DOC budget as approved by the subcommittee, would spend a total of $1.9 billion in Fiscal Year 2012 — a reduction of more than $101 million from the current 2011 budget.

The plan would achieve most of the savings through efficiencies and by closing the Florence Crane prison in Coldwater.