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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBible ministry building Noah's ark tells judge Kentucky can't take away tourism tax incentive
FRANKFORT, Ky. Lawyers for a Christian ministry building a Noah's ark theme park said Wednesday that Kentucky officials violated First Amendment religious protections when they denied the project a tax incentive worth millions.
Answers in Genesis, developer of the 510-foot wooden ark in central Kentucky, is suing to get back into the tourism incentive program, which could be worth around $18 million over 10 years.
The group's lawyers argued Wednesday in federal court in Frankfort that they should not face different treatment for the incentive just because the attraction would have religious themes.
Tourism officials "took this reflexive, kind of allergic reaction to religion" when it kicked the ark project out of the tax incentive program in December, said Mike Johnson, a lawyer for Answers in Genesis. The incentive would rebate a portion of the sales tax taken in by the Ark Encounter theme park after it opens. ...............(more)
http://www.startribune.com/noah-s-ark-developer-seeking-lost-kentucky-tax-incentive/311258621/
SidDithers
(44,228 posts)please tell me this is Ken Ham.
Sid
marmar
(77,081 posts)SidDithers
(44,228 posts)I think it would be a great keepsake.
Sid
annabanana
(52,791 posts)There is a Flying Spaghetti Monster theme park just waiting to be built that should SURELY qualify!
TlalocW
(15,383 posts)It's not because the attraction would have religious themes; it's because they will only hire people who agree with them on their interpretation of the Bible, the world being 6000 years old, etc. If you're a church, that's fine, but they're not, and they want public tax money to discriminate.
TlalocW
LuvNewcastle
(16,846 posts)From what they say about the law, this group does have a right to the incentive. Good legislators would have seen this coming, or maybe they did see it coming and did it on purpose.
Erich Bloodaxe BSN
(14,733 posts)The real reason they got the boot was they planned not to hire non-Christians, not because the attraction was religious in nature.
packman
(16,296 posts)and the reason, I believe I read, for the Ky. refusal for funding is Ham's insistence that only "Christians" (whatever that means) would be employed in the making of the Ark, the park, and as employees. At that point, Ky. told him to forget about receiving any funding from them.
procon
(15,805 posts)No taxpayer money for that con man, but like all hucksters and snake oil salesmen, he'll still find ways to rip off the gullible rubes.
"The state had initially approved the incentive and even celebrated the theme park proposal a few years ago. But state authorities reversed course last year after seeing statements from website postings and investor meetings that indicated the park would "be an extension of (Answers in Genesis') ministry."