House passes $25M pop culture museum bond on second vote

A day after SB839 failed by a vote of 44-49, the State House reconsidered and passed a $25,000,000 bond to fund a pop culture museum in Tulsa. On the reconsideration vote, the final tally was 51 in favor, 40 against. The measure had previously passed the State Senate 28-18.

Mind you, we had a $611,000,000 shortfall this year, took a substantial amount from the Rainy Day Fund and other state funds, and made major cuts to many agencies. Add this to the other $25,000,000 bond for the Indian Cultural Center passed earlier in this session (which ended today).

In the House, five members switched from 'no' to 'yes' on the pop culture museum bond.

Five members were missed the Thursday vote, then voted for it Friday: Will Fourkiller (D), James Lockhart (D), Jerry McPeak (D), Jason Nelson (R), and Mike Shelton (D).

Four Republicans voted no on Thursday, then missed the Friday vote: John Enns, Mark McBride, Sean Roberts, and Todd Russ. Democrat Johnny Tadlock missed the vote both times.

These are the 40 members who voted no both times (the correct vote, in my view): John Bennett (R), Scott Biggs (R), David Brumbaugh (R), Chad Caldwell (R), Kevin Calvey (R), Dennis Casey (R), Josh Cockroft (R), David Derby (R), Travis Dunlap (R), Jon Echols (R), George Faught (R), Dan Fisher (R), Randy Grau (R), Elise Hall (R), Tommy Hardin (R), Dennis Johnson (R), John Paul Jordan (R), Chris Kannaday (R), Sally Kern (R), Scott Martin (R), Charles McCall (R), Mark McCullough (R), Randy McDaniel (R), Lewis Moore (R), Jason Murphey (R), Tom Newell (R), Charles Ortega (R), Leslie Osborn (R), Pat Ownbey (R), Scooter Park (R), David Perryman (D), John Pfeiffer (R), Mike Ritze (R), Dustin Roberts (R), Michael Rogers (R), Mike Sanders (R), Earl Sears (R), Chuck Strohm (R), Steve Vaughan (R), and Paul Wesselhoft

The museum will include a parking garage, which apparently is the projected means of keeping the project profitable. Seriously.

Maybe the state should solve future budget crises by building parking garages... just a thought...