UPDATE: The Oklahoma House of Representatives reversed course Friday and passed a funding bill for the Oklahoma Popular Culture Museum in Tulsa.
After floor discussion that included House Speaker Jeff Hickman calling on his "friends in low places" to support the measure, Senate Bill 839 was approved by a 51-40 vote.
The measure that would provide $25 million in state-backed bonds to pay for the $40 million structure proposed for Archer Street and Boston Avenue now goes to the governor's desk.
A day earlier, SB 839 fell five votes short of gaining passage in the House after opponents questioned whether the state should be in the “museum business.”
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Read an earlier version of this article below:
OKLAHOMA CITY — Opposition to state-owned museums in general and suspicions about the Oklahoma Popular Culture Museum in particular sent state financing for the proposed Tulsa facility crashing to defeat on Thursday.
Senate Bill 839 by Senate President Pro Tem Brian Bingman, R-Sapulpa, failed 44-49 in the House of Representatives two days after narrowly passing in the Senate. To pass in the House, 51 votes would have been needed.
The measure would have provided $25 million in state-backed bonds to pay for the $40 million structure proposed for Archer Street and Boston Avenue.
The bill could still be revived on reconsideration.
The vote came hours after the Senate approved and sent to the governor a $25 million bond issue to finish the American Indian Cultural Center in Oklahoma City.
The Oklahoma Historical Society, which would operate the Tulsa museum, says it expects the facility to be operationally self-sustaining, thanks in large part to a 400-space parking garage included in the proposal.
Opponents were hearing none of it. Gun-shy from the two decades-long fiscal morass of the American Indian Cultural Center and sobered by a budget bill that cuts virtually every area of state government, they questioned whether the state should be in the “museum business” at all.
If the actors, artists and musicians who’ve pledged tens of millions of dollars worth of artifacts and archives to the Oklahoma Popular Culture Museum — OKPOP — want a museum, several legislators said, they should build it themselves.
Rep. John Pfeiffer, R-Mulhall, suggested a bean dinner to pay for the facility and called it a “nothing but a bad cliche.”
Rep. Steve Vaughan, R-Ponca City, said the Oklahoma Historical Society should “hock” the promised collections to build the museum.
There were also questions about the involvement of the Bank of Oklahoma, which is contributing the land for the museum, and Tulsa philanthropist George Kaiser.
“George Kaiser just spent $350 million to build the Gathering Place in Tulsa,” said Rep. David Brumbaugh, R-Broken Arrow. “If he wants this, he can build it himself.”
Brumbaugh said Tulsa “has a problem with too many museums” and said only privately owned museums are financially successful. He cited as an example a creationist museum in Kentucky that tried to get $18 million in state tax incentives for a Noah’s Ark theme park.
An announcement this week that a Tulsa group plans a $19 million Route 66 museum didn’t help the OKPOP cause, either. Several members said it seems to indicate that there is plenty of private money for museums in Tulsa.
Speaker Jeff Hickman, R-Fairview, defended the project by saying museums are not necessarily intended to make money.
“If we don’t invest in our history and culture, who will?” he asked.
Oklahoma Historical Society Executive Director Bob Blackburn said he was very disappointed by Thursday’s vote but had not given up. Blackburn seemed particularly surprised by the opposition of several Tulsa-area legislators.
Some of the same arguments were heard earlier in the day in the Senate, where Hickman’s House Bill 2237 passed 27-17 — two more than the minimum needed.
The construction of the American Indian Cultural Center was authorized in 1994 and mothballed, still uncompleted, in 2012 after lawmakers refused to provide any more capital outlays.
“Despite the challenge this facility has posed to previous legislatures, it still has great potential to be a major destination for tourism, a center of learning, and an engine for economic development,” Bingman said. “This is a thoughtful and responsible plan that gives us a chance to end state appropriations for ongoing costs, finish the facility and remove it from our books.”
Sen. Josh Brecheen, R-Coalgate, said that if the plan was such a good idea, the state should pay cash or send it to a vote of the people.
“Debt is not wealth,” Brecheen said. “Debt is not wisdom.”
Finishing the museum has been a priority of Gov. Mary Fallin.
World Capital Bureau reporter Barbara Hoberock contributed to this story.
