State Sen. Regina Goodwin, D-Tulsa, is not giving up.
A persistent advocate of reparations for Tulsa’s 1921 Race Massacre, Goodwin has filed a bill seeking $300 million in compensation to families affected by that deadly and destructive event.
She also wants school board members to be paid more than the $25 a meeting they now receive.
Both are issues Goodwin tried without success to address in the 59th Oklahoma Legislature. She’s making another go at them in the 60th Legislature, which starts Feb. 3.
To address reparations, Goodwin filed Senate Bill 74. It would appropriate $300 million to a fund to be administered by the Oklahoma Department of Commerce, two Tulsa lawmakers representing the historic Greenwood District and six community members.
The money would be distributed to people who could demonstrate that their families suffered losses in the race massacre.
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At the time, property losses were put at $1 million to $4 million, with an unknown number of people killed. With a few small exceptions, the losses were not covered by insurance and attempts to recover damages through the courts failed.
SB 74 is very similar to House Bill 1627, which Goodwin filed in the 59th Legislature as a state representative.
HB 1627 did not even get a committee hearing.
Whether the Senate of the 60th Legislature will be any more receptive can only be guessed. The politics haven’t visibly changed much, but Goodwin is sticking to her original argument.
“I think it’s reasonable, and I think it’s right,” she said.
Goodwin said that if the state could afford to offer Panasonic $800 million in a failed attempt to get an electric vehicle battery plant built in the state, it can afford $300 million for the families of people who lost just about all they had, including their lives in some cases.
“We were in the red when I first came to the Legislature,” she said. “I didn’t even ask for anything that cost money. Now we have more money in our coffers.”
Goodwin said she plans to file at least one more reparations-related bill this winter.
Less eye-catching, but perhaps more amenable to legislative leadership, is Goodwin’s proposal to increase school board member stipends from $25 to $190 per meeting for the state’s largest districts.
SB 63 is also a replay from a bill Goodwin filed in the last Legislature.
“It’s ridiculous for people to be on these school boards, with all that is going on, and not even get enough to pay for their gasoline,” she said.
Goodwin said $190 is equivalent to $25 in 1972, when that limit was placed on school board compensation.
SB 63 limits the increase to “districts with an average daily attendance exceeding 15,000 or a school district where boundaries encompass a total population exceeding 100,000 persons.”
According to the Oklahoma State Department of Education’s website, eight districts have enrollments of more than 15,000. They include Tulsa and Broken Arrow, with Union Public Schools a few shy.
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