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Bailout Approved For Frost Science Museum In Downtown

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- Miami-Dade commissioners approved a plan to bailout the Frost Science Museum.

On Tuesday, commissioners approved  the $49 million bailout in a 12 to 1 vote, according to our news partners at the Miami Herald.

As part of the bailout, the Frost Museum will get a nearly 30 percent increase in tax dollars.  That's to add to their already secured $165 million from the county.

A lack of private donors left the museum without the funds it needed to finish construction of its four-acre home in Downtown Miami's Museum Park.

The approved plan, proposed by Mayor Carlos Gimenez will use hotel taxes to fund construction of the museum.

"We can't just sit back and watch it fail," Gimenez said Tuesday. "We owe this museum to the future generations of Miamians."

Dr. Phillip Frost, one of the wealthiest individuals in South Florida, and his wife Patricia attended Tuesday's commission meeting. As the museum's top benefactors having pledged $45 million, they urged commissioners to approve the plan.

Construction began in 2012 but the money needed to finish the what was then a $275 million project had not been raised.  The museum had not planned to borrow the money needed to complete construction until last summer.

By that time, banks declined to provide the $100 million the museum wanted citing lack of pledges prompting a cash crisis. The only solution appeared to be a county bailout.

(©2016 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. CBS4 news partner The Miami Herald contributed material for this report.)

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