Lawmakers Approve Tourism Funding In Spite Of Pork Concerns

Tuesday, May 22nd 2007, 10:10 pm

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ A tourism funding bill is approved by the Oklahoma House late today in spite of concerns that it sets aside 500-thousand-dollars for projects that one lawmaker characterized as pork.

Republican Representative Mike Reynolds of Oklahoma City called the bill a, quote, ``giveaway.''

The House passed the measure 55-to-15 after opponents questioned a 150-thousand-dollar expenditure to the Pollard Theater in Guthrie, 150-thousand-dollars to the Greenwood Cultural Center in Tulsa and 200-thousand-dollars to an organization in Tulsa known as Pocketful of Hope.

The Pollard is a private, nonprofit theater operated by the Guthrie Arts and Humanities Council and is Oklahoma's only professional year-round resident theater company.

The Greenwood Cultural Center is located in the Greenwood district in north Tulsa, site of the 1921 Tulsa race riot where armed blacks and whites clashed resulting in the deaths of as many as 300 people.

Pocketful of Hope is a community project in Tulsa that focuses on underprivileged children and gang violence.