Little Kennie Folded!

One thing you learn when playing poker is that there comes a time when continuing to bet is just throwing good money after bad -- you have to be willing to fold your hand.  Bad poker players tend to fold much later than good ones.  I used to be amazed at how few pots professional poker players actually get involved in.

One of the lessons I learned early is that once you toss money in the pot, you cannot keep thinking it as 'yours', because that will keep you involved long after you should have folded and waited for the next hand.  Personally, I think that's what happened to little kennie ham, of the ark park, creation pseudo-museum, and answers-in-genesis ministries.  He should have folded a long time ago.

Of course kennie probably doesn't see it that way.  He doesn't recognize the ill-will his gamesmanship may end up costing him with the local community and even the State of Kentucky.  Only time will tell, in the meantime, kennie has engaged his chief spin doctor, Mark Looy, who had lots to say, including a few incredulous things.  Here's the report from WBIW.com: "Statement Regarding Safety Tax And The Ark Encounter".

The important thing, at least what I feel is important, is the kennie seems to be agreeing to pay the $0.50 tax.  I think that's good for the local community.  The bad thing is kennie's not paying it, his visitors are.  Check out this image from kennie's ark park website.  Actually it's two separate images from the same webpage, I just put them together to save room and I also added the black arrow showing the part I wanted you to see:

If you can't read it, it says:

"Ticket prices do not include Kentucky sales tax or Williamstown Safety Assessment Fee."

He's simply passed it right to his customers.  It does make me wonder what he was complaining against in the first place.  Did anyone think anything else was going to happen?  Little kennie was never going to pay it out of his own pocket, so all the shenanigans with claiming to be a religious ministry instead of a for-profit business . . . at least until the State threatened with pulling that sweetheart sale tax rebate deal . . . was just a waste of time.

Mark went on to talk how the park was always willing to pay what they considered 'fair'.  Sure . . . everyone who gets taxes gets to determine their own level of fairness, right?  Plus everyone tries to get out of it by claiming a religious exemption, don't they?  This is the funny bit to me.  Here, let me quote Mark:

""The filing for an exemption as a religious non-profit (as permitted in the ordinance), was done in an attempt to get the county to change the wording as it currently stands, which would exempt the Ark Encounter. It was not to avoid paying its fair share, as some articles have suggested."

Right, claiming a religious exemption had nothing to do with not paying, they just wanted the wording changed.  Anyone actually believe that?  I'm suuuuurrrreeee that if the county had said, "Oh OK, you don't have to pay." Mark, or kennie, would have jumped right up and said "Oh no, we just wanted you to change the wording, we have every intention of paying . . . oh yea, and the check's in the mail!"

Mark goes on and says that there have only been about 2 emergency calls per week since the ark park opened.  That's kind of a worthless phrase, because it doesn't really matter how many calls there have been, the equipment and trained personnel need to be in place when the call comes, not a year or two out pending funding, equipment, or training.  Mark also added another 'nothing' phrase:

"It should also be noted that a user fee is often charged to an individual's personal insurance for the cost of local medical emergency services' response to the Ark."

While this is more than likely a true statement, that's become the norm because very few places have the resources to front the charges for every call.  If the person has insurance, that's what usually happens.  The fee is for the manpower, equipment, and training to be able to respond.  How the further costs are handled on a per call basis is up to the locality.  The point I find the funniest is kennie is passing the fee through to his customers, but when any locality passes on the costs associated with a call to the person's insurance company, there's a problem there?

OK. enough on what Mark has to say.  What I am going to be most interested in is whether or not kennie's ticket sales reporting will be accurate.  On the one hand if he gives the State high numbers, he gets more of the sales tax rebate deal, but if the numbers are low, he pays the locality less in the emergency fee?  Funny how we have yet to hear anything authoritative about attendance, only vague references.  Hopefully there is some objective way to determine those numbers.

Quick Update: Ark Tax Battle and Cost of Protecting Religious 'Sensibilities'

Saw this article on The Spectrum: "The Chatter: Ark Encounter could lose $18M state tax incentives, judge orders state to pay $224K in same-sex marriage legal battle" and had a small laugh.  I guess it's more a laugh of hope than humor, hope that the State of Kentucky can find a way off the path that leads back to back to the Dark Ages.

Kentucky has a chance of taking back at least some of the incentives little kennie ham conned them out of by trying to be both a for-profit business and a non-profit ministry.  In addition, the State lost a same-sex marriage case, you know the one Kim Davis embroiled them in, so the taxpayers are out another $224,000.
 
First up, ark park taxes:

"The letter from Tourism’s general counsel B. Leigh Powers said the ark had several violations of the state agreement, including a failure to tell the agency of any change in ownership or get prior written consent to transfer assets. In addition, the agreement stipulated that the tax incentive, approved by the Tourism Development Finance Authority, was made for Ark Encounter."

Yes, the State is saying that by selling the land ($48 million value for $10) from a for-profit to a non-profit) the agreement for the sales tax rebate, worth about $18,000,000 has been violated and the sale tax rebate is suspended.  Little kennie, and his lawyers, have 30 days to fix things or they are out the rebate.

Now you and I know kennie isn't going to let a little thing like an agreement stand in his way to at least $18 million dollars, so he will try and figure a way around it.  I am sure his lawyers are working hard to find a loophole, one the overly-pandering politicians will probably jump through with him.  But it is nice seeing Kentucky at least tugging at kennie's theological noose around their necks.

I'm sure kennie will write this up as another example of his imaginary Christian Persecution Complex, regardless of the actual facts.  Fact: kennie wanted the state incentives, so he formed a for-profit business.  Fact:  kennie didn't want to pay the local emergency services tax on entertainment tickets, so he claimed to be a religious non-profit.  Fact:  The locality didn't buy it and now the state isn't either -- so forget the incentives!  I, for one, like facts.

The Far Corner Cafe had this terrific image:

Wish I had thought of that analogy myself!

The article also mentioned this:

"U.S. District Judge David Bunning awarded attorneys representing a pair of same-sex couples $222,695 who sued Davis in 2015 plus $2,008 in other expenses, the AP reported.
Bunning ruled at the state was liable for the expenses, not Rowan County or Davis personally, writing that she represented the commonwealth in her refusal to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples."

The State is planning to appeal, but I'm not sure who they plan on blaming for this fiasco.  A State employee refuses to do her job and, while initially held accountable, the State backed off and changed the law to let her get away with it.  Yes, the State should be held accountable, as should the county and Kim Davis herself, but the ultimate responsibility lies with the State of Kentucky.  Pay up, guys!  Dock some of it from Kim's paycheck for not doing her job if you have to, but it's time to pay for your sins.

You Cannot Have It Both Ways!

Either you are a religious ministry, or you are a for-profit business, you cannot be both.

As we have discussed before, little kennie ham, the purveyor of the ark park, creation pseudo-museum, and Answer in Genesis ministries, is whining about a $0.50 tax on his ark park tickets, a tax that will be used to upgrade Grant County emergency services -- services he may one day need, if he hasn't used them already.  We are talking police, fire, an ambulance services . . ..  He's asked for, and so far been refused, a religious exemption from the tax.  He's hinting at a lawsuit.

Since the whole purpose of the ark park is religious, I agree he should be exempt from the tax . . . . however . . . and you just knew there was going to be a however.

However, his ark park does a 60% rebate on sales tax collected from the ark park among other incentives -- incentives for being a for-profit business . . . incentives not available to non-profit religious ministries.  The sales tax rebate was applied for and approved because the ark park is a for-profit business.  If it's just the ticket prices, and with each ticket costing $40, that's means the 6% sales tax collect for each ticket is $2.40.  Since the unofficial reports put little kennie's ark park drawing in just under 1 million visitors in it's first year, that means he's collected just under $2.4 million dollars in sales tax.  His 60% rebate will net him $1.44 million dollars of that.  That's just on ticket prices.  If it's also on all the food and novelty items sold, that number could be considerable higher.

But that's not all his for-profit park received (from: What Ken Ham Isn’t Telling You About Ark Encounter Funding):

• The majority of Ark Encounter is being funded by an interest-free Taxed Incremental Funding grant from the City of Williamstown, Kentucky. On November 1, 2012, a Memorandum of Agreement (begins on page 55) approving $62 million in funding for Ark Encounter, LLC was signed by officials of Williamstown and the County of Grant.  
• It said that, over a 30-year period, 75% of Ark Encounter’s real estate taxes would go toward repayment of the interest-free TIF. 
• So instead of that money going to the city (and the citizens), it’ll be used to repay those bonds.
• You can view the bond issued by The City of Williamstown to Ark Encounter here and here.
• All employees working within the TIF district (that is, Ark Encounter) will pay a 2% job assessment fee on gross wages. In other words, $2 out of every pre-tax $100 dollars you make will go directly to paying off the for-profit Noah’s Ark attraction.
• According to Section VIII of the Memorandum of Agreement, in addition to the $62 million, the city and county agreed to other incentives (courtesy of local taxpayers):
• $175,000 would be given to Ark Encounter to reimburse the amount they felt the property was overvalued.
• $19,000 would go to Ark Encounter’s real estate agent, representing 2% of the total purchase price of the land.
• 98 acres of Grant County land would be sold to Ark Encounter for $1 (yes, one dollar).

So, in my opinion, grant kennie his exemption for the emergency services tax, but pull any and all public support for his ministry, including the sales tax rebate.  It's a simple issue, either the ark park is a religious ministry and deserves the exemption or it is a for-profit business and deserves the various incentives.

If little kennie wants to keep all those other incentives and tax breaks, then he should also stop discriminating from local citizens when it comes to hiring.  He promised thousands of jobs, and while he has added several hundred, they only go to people who believe the same foolishness as little kennie.  That's called discrimination and should not be allowed by a public for-profit business who is receiving state and local incentives!

So little kennie 'Marie Antoinette' ham, you cannot have it both ways.  Are you a for profit business or are you a non-profit ministry?

"It's Not My Fault" . . . The Gospel According to Little Kennie Ham

A few weeks ago little kennie ham, the purveyor of the Ark Park, Creation pseudo-museum, and Answers in Genesis ministries, was blaming atheists, particularly the 'secularists' for the failure of the ark park to bring his promises of economic success to Grant County, Ky.  You can read his post, "The Secularist Media War Against the Ark Continues", here is his opening paragraph:

"Recently, a number of articles in the mainstream media, on blogs, and on well-known secularist group websites have attempted to spread propaganda to brainwash the public into thinking our Ark Encounter attraction is a dismal failure. Sadly, they are influencing business investors and others in such a negative way that they may prevent Grant County, Kentucky, from achieving the economic recovery that its officials and residents have been seeking."

Little kennie, as usual, mis-represented things.  The secular media has not been reporting that his ark park is a dismal failure . . . what they have been reporting is his ark park has not been seen the promised economic success for the area surrounding his park, most notably Grant County, Ky.  Believe me, I would love to be able to report his ark park is a dismal failure . . . and educationally it certainly is . . . but apparently it has been bringing people into the area, apparently just people unwilling to spend much outside the ark park.  Little kennie promised economic benefits for the local area, but so far those promises have been unrealized.  So, as you can see by the above quote, kennie blamed Atheists.  But kennie is now casting the blame wider than just the secular media and atheist groups.

In a recent opinion piece by kennie, published by Cincinnati.com,  "Ham: Restaurants, hotels needed for Ark crowds" he has a new target to blame:

"For 2017–2018, Answers in Genesis (owner of both attractions) confidently predicts that the Ark will have even greater attendance than our excellent first year – provided, that is, we see more entrepreneurs building additional hotels to accommodate our visitors."

So let me get this straight.  The local area around the ark is complaining that the ark isn't bringing in the business they were promised.  First, kennie blames the 'secular' media for reporting about what the ark is (a ministry) and the ever shifting claims of attendance (both before and after the park opened), and the lack of financial benefit to the surrounding area.  Now he's blaming the local community for not building enough stuff to bring in people.  And, if you read this the way I have, if the local community doesn't do more, the ark park won't bring in even more people and it will be the fault of the local communities.  Doesn't that seem a bit off to you?

Most attractions see a drop-off in attendance following an opening period.  Most parks plan for such things because estimates forecast this drop pretty accurately -- it's based on experience, well most estimates except for kennie's. He's now predicting an increase . . . but he built himself a ready excuse and will heap even more blame on the local communities.  So when the usual drop-off in visitors starts happening, he already has a victim to blame.  Anyone else see something wrong here?

Let's look back for a bit.  Anyone been to Disneyland?  The one in California.  The first time I saw it in daylight, I was surprised how crowded everything was around it.  Hotels, restaurants, and even housing, sprang up right up against the property line of the park itself.   Now, the question . . . were those facilities there before the park?  No!  The area was mostly groves and farmland before the park, they sprang up in response to the park attendance.  Note the words 'in response'!

It's not those facilities that brought in the visitors, but the attractions.  But that's not how kennie sees it.  If the local area fails to provide more facilities, the ark park won't bring in the business.  However, that's not how it works, kennie.  You bring in the people and the response will be more and more facilities.  What you should be doing . . . and I feel really strange for saying it . . . is trying to attract more visitors.  Instead, you are whining about atheists and blaming the local community for not building facilities that may never get used.  Not a very effective way to attract visitors.

Real attractions are not one-hit wonders.  If you want staying power, you have to continually add and update your offerings.  But I can see kennie building another ark, maybe captained by Noah's little brother, Brian?  Sounds implausible, but if there is a line in the Bible kennie could use to represent the possibility of ark II, you know he will -- no matter how convoluted the connection might be.  After all, look what he did to the defenseless Bible with his pseudo-museum.

Little kennie might have learned that from the declining attendance to his pseudo-museum.  What I find funny is how quickly kennie re-writes recent history.  He said:

"Interestingly, a state-commissioned study predicted that if the Ark Encounter were a themed attraction featuring our creationist beliefs (and it does), it would draw 325,000 visitors the first year. The Ark reached that figure in less than three months."

However, that's not exactly a lie, but it's not the whole story either.  Several years before the ark park was built, a separate study was done and made the estimate kennie quoted.  But kennie's own estimates were over 2.2 million a year -- which was later changed to 2.2 million visitors in the first year, which was later changed again to between 1.4 to 2.2 million in the first year.

He's coming up on his first anniversary and apparently thinks he'll hit 1 million sometime in July.  Of course, we have no firm figures, kennie isn't saying anything officially -- wonder why?  He like to wave that alternative report around for a couple of reasons.  I think he's hoping you will forget the 2.2 million visitors a years estimate -- and also because beating that several year-old estimate certainly sounds better than having to say he failed to reach 50% of his own estimate, or that he failed to reach his lower revised estimate, or admit that he has failed on his promises (jobs and economic success) to the local community!

In other words, kennie isn't being overly honest.  But what can you expect after he reneged on his promise to comply with hiring laws and now discriminates against people who don't share his narrow religious view in making hiring decisions . . . which means the majority of the people who live around the park cannot work at the park.  His little ark park ministry has also failed to have the several thousand job openings that he said it would as well.  But since he screwed them out of jobs, it seems only fitting that he blames them for his failure to deliver on any of his promises.

My issue with the ark park has little to do with attendance or even money.  My issue is that it is a ministry . . . it's not any of the other things he keep trying to claim it is . . . it was not intended as a tourist attraction, an educational attraction, nor an entertainment attraction -- it's a ministry!  He's used those other terms now and again when marketing his ministry, especially when he wanted state aid in building this particular monument to his ego.  It's a ministry and it will only appeal to a small part of the world's population.  Once they've seen it, repeat business will be very limited . . . as kennie found with his pseudo-museum.  Adding zip lines isn't going to be a great help, they weren't when he added them to his pseudo-museum.  Seriously who is going to visit the ark, and pay $40 per person, to go zip lining?

No, attendance will most likely go down, and kennie is just lining up others to blame.  After all, it's not his fault that he over-promised and failed to deliver, is it?

Talk about Quick Change . . . it's a Ministry . . . No, It's a For-Profit Tourist Attraction . . . no, it's a Ministry . . .

Let's review a bit of history, the Ark Park, officially 'Ark Encounters, LLC', is a for-profit corporation.  This allowed them to push for public tax breaks and funding requests, which they received mostly because of Republican politicians.

So, when it comes to hiring practices, this for-profit business is being allowed to discriminate and hire based on religious beliefs.  If it wasn't for those pandering politicians, this would have ended their public tax breaks and funding.  If you don't think that was one of the reasons for the for-profit LLC, this is from the Ark Encounters own Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page . . . or it used to be.  For some reason lots of it is missing from the current FAQ.  But there is this website, the Wayback Machine.  It archives many webpages and it just so happens to have saved the originals from the Ark sites.  Here is a quote:

"The for-profit LLC structure also allows the Ark Encounter to be eligible for various economic development incentives that would not have been available with a non-profit structure."

Interesting, one of the reasons for going this route was specifically for those tax breaks and other incentives.

However the local community, specifically Grant County, Ky, is in the middle of a serious financial crisis and the hopes that all the visitors to the ark park would bail them out has not materialized.  So the county took steps and imposed a $0.50 tax on entertainment tickets -- called a 'safety tax' -- on on attractions like the ark park.  The purpose of this tax is for emergency services -- you know the kind services that might be needed if lightening does to kennie's ark what it did to Big-Butter Jesus in 2010.

Little kennie ham whined about that already -- we mentioned it in "Greedy Shepherd Annoyed that the Sheared Sheep are Making Noise".  Well now we know their more formal response.  Apparently little kennie and company are requesting an exemption from the entertainment tax on the grounds that they are a ministry.  The Grant County News reported it: "Ark Encounter requests safety fee exemption".

"Skinner and the other councilmembers voiced their disagreement with the exemption request; with councilman Kim Crupper noting that the Ark Encounter operates on a for-profit status. City Attorney Jeff Shipp added that the organization’s corporate filings in Missouri indicate that they are a for-profit corporation. "

To back that up, here are another two quotes from the 'Wayback Machine'.  As usual, I underlined the most interesting bits:

"Why is the project so big, and why is a for-profit LLC going to own the Ark Encounter? 

Because feasibility studies revealed that the Ark would attract 1.6 million guests in the first year, the project needed to be much more than just the Ark alone to handle the anticipated crowds. Accordingly, eight additional biblically themed attractions were included in the Ark Encounter complex to accommodate all of the expected guests.Due to the size of the Ark Encounter project, a for-profit LLC structure was selected to be able to help raise the approximately $150 million necessary to build it ($125 million of that total will come through investments). We also desired to avoid financing the project through debt. In addition, this large amount of funding would not have been probable solely through donations. The for-profit LLC structure allows for the primary funding to come from private equity investment, while at the same time ensuring that the control of the content, design, and operations of the Ark Encounter will be led by Crosswater Canyon, a wholly owned subsidiary of Answers in Genesis. . . ."

"Is this a non-profit endeavor? 

In a sense, the Ark Encounter is both a for-profit and not-for-profit endeavor. The Ark Encounter is a for-profit operation but is managed by a non-profit subsidiary ministry of Answers in Genesis. The LLC and its members will be responsible for all of the normal taxes required for pass-through business entities."

The good news, at least for now, is the county is standing their ground and reminding kennie that the ark park is not officially a ministry, but a for-profit corporation and therefore plans to reject the requested exemption.  Hopefully they will stick to their guns.  While kennie's legal beagle agreed it is a for-profit company, he said that if the exemption is not approved that the ark park is "considering their options".  In some ways I hope they push it to the courts.

I know, I know the odds of Kentucky actually enforcing its own laws on kennie and his ark park are slim, but there is always a chance the people of Kentucky might get a break and realize that not only is the park a ministry, but the tax breaks and other funding help they received should never have happened, especially in the light of them being a for-profit business.  So if the ruling is it IS a ministry, pull the state and county support -- including going back and getting fair value for the things already given based on the for-profit status.  If it is ruled a for-profit business, demand kennie comply with state and federal hiring practices and insure  . . . as originally agreed . . . that the park pays its normal taxes, which would include this 'safety tax'.

This is kennie being kennie.  'I'm a ministry, protect me . . . no, wait, I'm a for-profit business, give me tax breaks . . .'  He wants tax breaks and funding of a for-profit business, but he wants the legal protections for a religious non-profit that allow him to discriminate in his hiring practices -- after promising not to do so and avoid paying taxes -- even taxes designed to fund services he may need.  He seems to switch coats as it pleases him, and he looks nothing like Marie Antoinette.

Ark Park: Economic Boom or Bust?

There have been a great many articles about the economic impact that 'little kennie' ham's latest monument to his own ego, the Ark Park, has had on the local community.  The clear majority has been bad news for the citizens who thought it was going to be a tourist goldmine.

If you remember, one of the rationalizations that kennie used to sell the building of his ark park was how many visitors it would being into Grant County, Ky and the surrounding area.  By portraying it as a tourist trap and not a ministry, he sold it to the State and local governments who granted him all sorts of incentives and breaks.

But in all the press concerning such economic benefits, I have seen only one semi-positive article, the rest portrayed communities feeling more than a little victimized.  There was one that should to be viewed with a grain of salt . . . it was written by little kennie himself ("Economic benefits of Ark Park unfairly downplayed").  The clear majority of the reporting has shown that the ark park hasn't meet the expectations of the citizens who are paying for those incentives and breaks.  Here are a few examples:

"While a steady stream of visitors has flocked to visit the ark and the nearby Creation Museum, the impact on Williamstown’s economy has been far less than what many local residents expected." (Answers in Genesis? Ark, other attractions haven't boosted economy as expected, The Daily Independent, June 7, 2017)

"Stormey Vanover is less hopeful. . . . She has operated Country Heart Crafts on Williamstown’s Main Street for the past nine years, sometimes with a profit, sometimes at a loss. “We do get a few people from the Ark, but they don’t really know we’re here,” she said amid the Kentucky-made soaps, candles and ornaments featured in her store, which is surrounded by empty storefronts. “It’s just not impacting us the way we thought it would.” " (Town expected flood of business after Noah’s Ark opened. So far, it’s a trickle, Lexington Herald Leader, June 2, 2017)

But the project’s single largest source of funding was actually $62 million in junk bonds floated by the town of Willamstown, population less than 4,000, home to the Ark Encounter and the county seat of Grant County, which faced bankruptcy this spring.“In terms of revenue for the county, we don’t get too much from them,” says the county’s chief executive, Stephen Wood. The Ark Encounter negotiated a vastly discounted 30-year rate on property taxes in 2013 under a previous administration. “I hate it, but that’s the deal,” says Wood.(A giant ark is just the start. These creationists have a bigger plan for recruiting new believers., The Washington Post, May 24, 2017 )

So, with the conclusion that the economic windfall isn't happening, the next question is who is to blame.  While that might not sound like a fair question, it does need to be addressed because little kennie, for all his pronouncements about how well the ark park is doing, posted this today:

"Recently, a number of articles in the mainstream media, on blogs, and on well-known secularist group websites have attempted to spread propaganda to brainwash the public into thinking our Ark Encounter attraction is a dismal failure. Sadly, they are influencing business investors and others in such a negative way that they may prevent Grant County, Kentucky, from achieving the economic recovery that its officials and residents have been seeking." (The Secularist Media War Against the Ark Continues, Answers in Genesis Ministry News, June 12, 2017)

Basically it's the atheists' fault.  Regardless of the lack of reporting from little kennie on actual attendance figures, or economic information impact, it's all the secular groups' fault.  Now I have a question, do you think believers in kennie's narrow version of the universe really pay much attention to the media, especially when the media isn't particularly flattering about one of their ministries?

I'm serious, I don't think anything the media says would affect their interest to visit kennie's ministries.  The media hasn't been particularly flattering to his Creation 'museum' and it seems to be making kennie lots of money, but not the communities in the surrounding area.  So, if anything, the media's representation of the ark park is probably keeping some people away, but would those people want to visit it anyway?

Serious question, while some might visit out of curiosity, but no media coverage, flattering or not, will get most people who disagree with kennie's point of view to visit one of his ministries.  So why aren't the local communities experiencing some sort of economic renaissance?  One thing might be kennie's overstated projections.  In his post Kennie said ". . . The economic recovery that the officials and residents have been seeking" but that's not an accurate picture.  It's not just that those communities were seeking, but that's the economic impact kennie said they would receive . . . providing they gave kennie all sorts of incentives and breaks so he could build his ministry there.  They did, yet the economic benefits are going where exactly?

Before the ark park was built, little kennie made a number of projections made, he even reduced his final set of attendance estimates to between 1.4  and 2.2 million visitors a year, recent reports say he's close to seeing his 1 millionth visitor -- which is interesting since it's been open over a year now.  More realistic estimates claimed while the first year will bring in many curious believers, as time goes on, it will decline to about 375,000 a year.  Far below his projections.

While it would be nice to blame kennie, the fault isn't entirely his.  Yes, his forecasts and projections have been mostly smoke, but the local people and their elected officials are also responsible.  What they should have told kennie when he announced plans to build his ministry was "Have fun!"  They should not have offered any incentives or tax breaks, after all it's a ministry.  But they were looking for a lifeline and that bought into kennie's overly optimistic numbers. Remember the adage "Let the buyer beware.", well they bought into it and now they get to pay for the privilege.  If I recall correctly. kennie forecasted 3000 new jobs, but in reality on about 900 have materialized.  A small county not getting 2100 anticipated jobs is another significant impact.

Things are so bad for Grant County that they may have to go bankrupt.  But they do have a plan, and it hits kennie where it hurts, in his wallet.  They are proposing a $0.50 tax on entertainment ticket sales.  We wrote about it in "Greedy Shepherd Annoyed that the Sheared Sheep are Making Noise".  Little kennie claims such a tax would force him to raise his $40 ticket price.  Sure, 1.25% tax is going to 'force' his to raise his ticket prices.  It wouldn't have been necessary if kennie had made realistic projections and the county understood what it was getting.  But that is a little too much to ask.  

What I will say, at this point, is someone is making money off of the ark park, and it's not the local community.  Gee, I wonder who it could be?  In the meantime, little kennie's 'ark of ignorance' is open for business while the rest of the area might not be able to say that for long.

Greedy Shepherd Annoyed that the Sheared Sheep are Making Noise

The sheep that little kennie ham has been happily shearing are extremely unhappy and are taking steps to possibly become happy again -- and it's pissing kennie off.

I guess I should explain a little clearer.  The county where kennie built his pseudo-replica Noah's Ark, aka the 'ark park', has not given the economic boost that kennie claimed they would get in several of his many economic and attendance projections.  The county that gave him tax breaks and concessions so he would built the latest monument to his own ego in their fair county.  They are looking to institute a $.50 tax on the tickets to get some of the promised financial remuneration . . . and it seems they may have hurt kennie's feeling by not clearing it with him first.

"No Help From Noah: The County That Banked on a Religious Theme Park to Solve Its Money Problems" is one article about it, there have been several, all explaining the financial crisis facing Grant County, Ky.  Now it might sound like it, but I am not blaming kennie completely, the local officials who gave hefty land grants and tax incentives to kennie have a large share of the blame.  They bought into his spiel and now they are paying for it.  Remember, it's not kennie who loses if things don't go perfectly, but the taxpayers of Kentucky, particularly Grant county.  In honesty, the ark park might have been  . . . pun intended . . . the God-send they were hoping for, but they failed to take into a number of considerations, like any contingency planning if the park didn't work out as hoped.  But now they have dug themselves into a hole and are looking for a way out. Of course they can't expect any help from kennie unless they force it out of him -- which is what they are going to do.

Their solution has kennie upset, "Ark Encounter owners ‘blindsided’ by new tax that could raise ticket prices":

"The proprietors of a gigantic wooden Noah’s Ark in Williamstown are steamed about a new “safety assessment” tax that will collect 50 cents for every admission ticket sold, according to the Grant County News.
Ark Encounter spokesman Mike Zovath told the newspaper that Ark officials will now have to consider raising ticket prices, which are $40 for adults and $28 for children."

What I have trouble understanding is that at $40 to visit the pseudo-replica boat . . . kennie is complaining that the $40 doesn't give him enough to share with the people who granted him major tax breaks and concessions.  He's going to have to raise his ticket prices so he can share .0125 of each ticket with Grant County.  How much would you like to bet he's going to raise the ticket prices more than $.50?  And when he does, he's going to blame the county.

Personally I think Grant County, since they cannot go back in time and refuse to suck up to this religious fanatic, should have made the amount of the new tax a percentage, so that way no matter what kennie does as his ticket prices keep rising . . the county gets more $$.  After all, isn't this the county who kennie stiffed by implementing discriminatory hiring practices for his for-profit park -- after promising not to?  Think of all those local residents who got shut out of a job opportunity because of kennie's narrow religious beliefs?  

Has anyone checked to see how many ark park employees live outside of Grant County, even how many live outside of Kentucky?  Now that would make interesting reading, wouldn't it?