Posted on 07/19/2017 8:01:54 PM PDT by Rebelbase
I’ve posted before about how Williamstown (Kentucky) officials are instituting a “safety fee” for ticket-taking attractions in the city.
If implemented, the city would charge Ark Encounter 50 cents per ticket to go towards things like fire trucks and police cars — all the things that make the city a safer place for residents and tourists. Using the estimate of 1.4 million visitors a year, this would amount to approximately $700,000 that Ark Encounter would owe the city annually.
The Creationists at Ark Encounter, however, say they should be exempt from that charge because they run a non-profit ministry. You wouldn’t force a church to pay taxes, now, would you?!
The problem is that up until now, Ark Encounter has legally been a for-profit business in order to receive a number of tax incentives from the city and state. That’s why officials in Williamstown figured they could ask Ark Encounter to pay up. It’s not a church; it’s a money-making tourist attraction. They recently went ahead with their plans to make Ark Encounter pay the fee.
City leaders are now bracing for a lawsuit from the very organization that was supposed to save the local economy.
Meanwhile, Ark Encounter just took the boldest step yet to avoid paying the 50 cent surcharge.
According to the Lexington Herald-Leader‘s Linda Blackford, the team behind Ark Encounter recently sold the land on which the giant boat rests for a whopping $10.
… Ark Encounter LLC sold its main parcel of land — the one with the life-size Noah’s Ark — for $10 to their non-profit affiliate, Crosswater Canyon. Although the property is worth $48 million according to the Grant County Property Valuation Administrator, the deed says its value is only $18.5 million.
That’s the latest salvo in an escalating argument between local officials and Ark Encounter, but some are worried Ark Encounter’s maneuver is a precursor to declaring itself exempt from all taxes, including property taxes that help fund Grant County schools.
Just to summarize here, Ark Encounter used its for-profit status to receive all sorts of tax breaks. Then the Creationists told Williamstown officials that they ran a non-profit ministry to avoid paying more taxes. And now they’re basically confessing that they were a for-profit business this whole time because they just sold the boat to the non-profit entity that oversees it.
If that’s confusing… well, welcome to how Creationists think.
Let’s suppose for a moment that all of this is legal. At best, it suggests that Ark Encounter is incredibly unethical. Williamstown gave the Creationists cheap land and tax breaks galore over the next few decades with the hope that Ark Encounter would eventually create lots of jobs and bring in tourists who would spend money at surrounding businesses.
Ken Ham is paying them back by restricting jobs to his anti-gay Creationist buddies, threatening to sue the city over the safety fee, and finding a way to possibly withhold taxes that would fund local schools.
[Mayor Rick] Skinner said losing all of Ark Encounter’s property taxes would hurt the city, county, and most of all, schools.
“It would be a huge hit to the schools,” he said.
Skinner said he is “disappointed” in how much the town’s relationship with Ark officials has deteriorated, but said he would wait to comment further until Tuesday’s meeting.
Here’s a statement that will surprise nobody: Ken Ham doesn’t care about public schools. When you’re playing the game of Christian indoctrination, education is the enemy. You think Ham gives a damn about public schools not getting money from his business? Not a chance. He’ll consider that a victory.
Once again, Creationists are screwing over the city that bent over backwards to give them a home. Critics have been saying that for years. Unfortunately, it looks like local officials are finally realizing it when it’s too late.
(Thanks to Matt for the link. Portions of this article were published earlier)
creationists...right.
Greed, for want of a better word, is good.
If true it’s disappointing. We visited the Creation Museum five years ago and loved it. We also have plenty of AiG books and dvds. I respect Ken Hamm, but this is not being as “innocent as a dove”.
“It’s not a church; it’s a money-making tourist attraction.”
It may be neither a church nor a money making attraction.
Sounds like the bureaucrats got greedy and wanted a larger share of the pie... are the entitled to it? Sounds like the folks at Ark Encounter disagree and are taking steps to combat the governments money grab. The local government is already getting plenty of increased revenue through tourism-related windfalls.
Don’t buy into the narrative of the article completely... there’s two sides to the story.
Say, who's that man who just came in and is flipping over tables?
That sort of fraud doesn’t hold up with private automobile sales transactions in Virginia. The state will bill you a tax assessment based at least on fair-market value regardless of what the bill of sale says.
But the city offer all services long before they instituted a fee, that basically targeted only one business.
And there is no need to toss in “anti-gay” as an epithet toward the group.
Sometimes these disputes do have two sides.
“...there’s two sides to the story.”
Not from that article there isn’t! I think I read where the attraction hasn’t had the attendance numbers that they had hoped for.
I do feel bad for all of the homosexuals in Williamstown, Kentucky that were hoping to work at the Creationist Ark Encounter but have been turned away.
“Sounds like the bureaucrats got greedy and wanted a larger share of the pie... are the entitled to it? Sounds like the folks at Ark Encounter disagree and are taking steps to combat the governments money grab.”
They took the king’s coin.
The local politicians get greedy for more tax revenue, and decide to levy a special tax on the business.
Business fights back by declaring it is now an exempt business, and pulls a slick accounting maneuver. Some may deem this unethical and unChristian, but it may well be perfectly legal. Would this article have been written if this were a live reenactment of prebrimstone Sodom?
Greedy politicians have less revenue than they started with.
But they apparently acting very shrewdly!
Ken Ham!!! Have you hired Kent Hovind as your tax advisor???
And just what do you perceive that photo to represent?
I perceive it to be from the Creation Museum’s Facebook page.
It is SUPPOSED to be God’s rainbow according to the exhibit people.
Uh huh. And what seems to have prompted you to post that particular image, do you perceive some sort of meaning there, that you’d like to share?
Actually, from Ken Ham’s Facebook page.
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