Letter to the Editor Pulls No Punches

A letter to the editor over at the Lexington Herald-Leader tickled my funny bone.  You have to be careful with sarcasm when you are writing, because you can't send to obvious non-verbal clues which help to sarcasm-deficient people from understanding the meaning behind what you are trying to convey.  I do so enjoy things that are clear-cut, like a slap in the face.

This one hits the nail right on the head: "Ark Park wizardry".  While the facts of the recent debacle over the emergency tax are pretty simple -- the ark park folks have offered little substantiation for their claims that they had always intended to pay it, nor for that matter a reasonable explanation about why the property changed metaphysical pockets- going from kennie ham's for-profit pocket to his non-profit pocket and then back to his for-profit pocket.  Mark Looy, the ark parks communication chief seems to expect us to believe there was no connection with the timing of the property shift or the potential loss of the State's Sales Tax rebate because of the switch.

So, let me get this straight, Mark.  You get hit with a tiny tax that you claim you never saw coming, and right after the local community reminds you that you are a for-profit business, kennie changes from one pocket to the next, and back again after learning the State was less than amused and offered to pull the $18,000,000 in estimated sales tax incentives  And you expect us to believe all those actions are unrelated?  Really?

I don't think Daniel Phelps, the writing of this short, but entertaining letter, buys that either.

Loved how he closed it:

"Not only are the Ark’s leaders the world’s most holy men and know more about science and religion than anyone else, they are also ace businessmen, financial wizards and philanthropists who want only to help Williamstown and Grant County public schools."

Sarcasm, my second language.  Actually since I am from Brooklyn NY, English is my second language with Brooklynese my first.  So I guess sarcasm is my third one.  I don't think that is what comes to mind when you think 'multi-lingual'.

I also recall a Washington Post asking people to add or remove one letter from a common word and define the new word.  One of the winners from a few years ago is now an entry in the Urban Dictionary:

"Sarchasm - the gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it"

I know which side of the chasm little kennie is probably on, which one are you? 

Hopefully One Last Post about Kennie, the Ark Park, and Taxes -- at least the Safety Assessment Fee issue

The Non-Profit Quarterly has an article about little kennie ham and his ark park tussle with Kentucky.  A couple of interesting things I wanted to point out.  Here' the link tot he article: "The Ark Encounters: Business or Charity Take Two".  After a brief summary of all the shenanigans, especially the transfer of the land from the for-profit to a non-profit back to the for-profit, NPQ said this:

"All this transferring back and forth, given the public issues surrounding the park, has created much doubt about the motives of the organization."

Yes anyone with a working brain probably doesn't buy into kennie's story about how they always intended to pay their share of the safety assessment fee and how the transfer wasn't an effort avoid paying any, or even all, taxes. We discussed that one in "Little Kennie Folded!"  But I don't think it took this latest set of activities to create doubt about kennie and his ministries.

"Additionally, negotiating pay for emergency services and the conveniently timed nonprofit transfer make it seem like the organization is not supportive of public safety."

I think trying to claim that they have only averaged two emergency calls a week and that the further costs of a call may well be passed onto the person's insurance also support kennie's lack of regard for supporting the emergency services of the local community.  Does kennie really care much of anything for the local community?  I don't believe so.

If he did, would he be discriminating against them for jobs at his ministries, particularly jobs whose skill set have nothing to do with one's religious beliefs? I don't think so! You know I understand hiring a preacher who supports your belief set, but computer programmers? No, that's called discrimination! I do believe the article was wrong in saying:

"However, the judge later granted the tax break and even allowed the organization to refuse to hire those not following the same religious beliefs."

It wasn't so much the judge decided, but the decision was taken from the judge's hands by the newly elected Republican Governor. At least that's how I remember it. Little kennie likes to claim it was a ruling, but it was more the state government giving up.

If he really cared about the local community. would he have balked at the Safety Assessment Fee knowing full well he was going to pass it right onto his customers?  If might have been one thing if it came out of his pocket, but those sort of taxes and fees never do.  He passed it on after trying to avoid it altogether.

Finally, would he be setting up the local community for the blame if the attendance at the park doesn't show a significant increase in the next year? Remember this:

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."

No, I don't think kennie really cares about the local community and will interact with them only as much as he has to.  But he will be perfectly willing to scapegoat them if the ark park doesn't improve on its attendance -- which, unofficially, is significantly under-performing even kennie's least optimistic first year attendance projections.

Hopefully, this will be the last post about this particular topic, but I kinda doubt it.  I'm sure it will be brought up again the next time kennie isn't given what he seems to feel is owed to him.

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 to the Quick Update: Little Kennie Backs Down

Just a short time ago I posted "Quick Update: Ark Tax Battle and Cost of Protecting Religious 'Sensibilities'" about how the State of Kentucky responded to little kennie's tactic of selling his $48 million land to himself, in the guise of one of his non-profits.  It appeared to be an attempt to avoid paying an entertainment tax of $0.50 a ticket. If the last year is any indicator, that tax might be in the neighborhood of half a million dollars.

Well the State responded by suspending kennie's $18 million dollar sale tax rebate. And just a short time after I posted my comments, I caught this from the Sensuous Curmudgeon: "Hambo Reverses the Ark Transfer" and . . . lo and behold . . . little kennie switched things back. Anyone else less than surprised?

Of course this is just round 3, or is it 4.  Let's see.  Round 1 was little kennie failing in his promises to bring an economic turnaround to the local area.  Round 2 was the county implementing the entertaining tax to support emergency services.  Round 3 was kennie's selling his own land to himself in an apparent effort to avoid the tax.  So Round 4 was the State saying 'Say goodbye to sales tax rebate', that makes little kennie's rapid turnaround Round 5.  I guess the next move will be kennie's next effort in keeping both the sales tax rebate AND not paying the entertainment tax.

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.

Taxes, Taxes, and Less Taxes . . . Or Will Kentucky Let Kennie Get Away With It?

Many years ago, at least in New York State, when you sold a car, you had to pay sales tax on the amount of the sale.  What happened over time was that sales not involving a dealer, often within families, was selling a car for $1.00 from one owner to the next.  The sales tax was just a few pennies on vehicles valued in the hundreds, even thousands, of dollars.  Of course eventually the lawmakers caught on and changed the rules.  You can still sell your car for $1, but when the new owner registers it, there's more paperwork involved and they will end up with a sales tax bill based on the book value of the vehicle, not the sale price.

Little kennie ham is trying a similar thing and I do so hope the people of Grant County KY won't let him get away with it.  In an effort to avoid paying a tax that will be used to improve emergency services, he's sold the land the Ark Park sits on to himself.  Yes, his for-profit business sold the land to one of his non-profit ministries, land valued at $48 million dollars, for $10.  Not $10 million, $10.00.  It's his latest tactic to avoid paying taxes.

His for-profit business is still running things, he's just trying to skate out of that emergency services tax.  Look, Kentucky, if you enjoy being screwed over, then just lay there and take it.  You want some sort of theocracy, well look carefully because you seem to be getting one, one that will pick your pocket with one hand while the other holds out a pan expecting donations.  Little kennie says something and the appearance is you run to serve him.  Aren't you getting tired of letting him make a mockery of you and your State?

Local officials are also worried that he will be able to use this dodge to get out of any and all taxes.  Look at the impact that will have on the local communities, particularly schools.  So kennie lies to you with promises of economic windfalls and jobs, takes millions in incentives and other benefits . . . and when you try and shore up your emergency services -- which, by the way, service kennie's ark park as well . . . he tries and end run to con his way out of that.

The fix is simple, give kennie his religious exemption from that tax and at the same exact time pull any and all local, county, and state incentives.  At the same time, send him a tax bill for the purchase of the land . . . not on the purchase price, but on the actual value.  If we can do it for cars, we sure as hell can do it for multi-million dollar pieces of property.

If that doesn't work, then I think we should all move to Kentucky, open our own ministry -- with a congregation of one.  Then sign over all property -- including any external paychecks -- to that ministry and avoid paying any kind of taxes.  We can demand all sorts of State and Local services without paying a pretty penny . . . and if anyone complains, slap them with a religious discrimination lawsuit!  After all, didn't John Oliver demonstrate how easy that can be?

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?

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.

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?

Newsweek looks at Ham's Folly 2

Quite a while ago I referred to the Creation 'Museum' as 'kennie ham's folly'.  As you probably know, he's building a new attraction, the Ark Encounter, which is, in my opinion, his second folly.

Aside from everything going on, I have a serious question to ask.  Before kennie started building his 'ark park', he provided an estimate for visitors that no one seems to actually believe.  I mean 2 million visitors a year?  Really?  My question is what was his predictions for visitors to his first folly and how did his predictions measure up to the reality?  I don't know, but I am very curious.

But on to Newsweek, the article is "Noah's Ark Rises in Kentucky, Dinosaurs and All".  It's a pretty good article, it summarizes little kennie and his Hamians well.  It goes into the issues about the ark park discriminatory hiring practices and Kentucky pulling some of their tax support due to those practices and little kennie's lawsuit of a response.  What I found interesting in the article was a reminder that while kennie says:

“No Kentucky taxpayer money is going to build the Ark Encounter,”

While that is the literal truth, it's not a complete answer.  While no tax money is being used to build the stupid thing, there are millions of tax money, that would normally go into the community, will be funneled back into the ark park to deal with it's debt.  In other words kennie and his followers are off the hook and the taxpayers of Kentucky will be left with the bill.

Later in the article is a great quote:

“AiG is confusing what they have the right to do as a private organization with what taxpayers are required to fund,” says Greg Lipper, senior litigation counsel for Americans United for Separation of Church and State. “They’re saying Kentucky taxpayers should pay for them to expand a religious ministry. That kind of argument would make Thomas Jefferson turn in his grave.”

AiG does it's best to make a mockery of science, and it extends well beyond evolutionary theory.  They mock Chemostry, Geology, Paleontology, and even Climatology.  The summary of the article makes the point that when you look at everything his ministries . . . and don't forget that kennie himself described the ark park as a ministry, may also slow responses to other actual scientific issues, such as Climate Change.

I don't know about you, but I can't wait for kennie to respond to this article.  So far nothing, but the Newsweek post is dated just yesterday.  I bet he has to get his blood pressure under control before he responds.

Kenticky Lawmakers never seem to learn. Ark Park wants more help!

Article from the National Center for Science Education "Extending summer vacation for the sake of creationism?".  The title pretty much says it all.  Two lawmakers are apparently sucking up to kennie ham for some reason I will never understand.

Let's see, kennie ham starts another project, claiming it would be a for-profit tourist attraction and asked for Kentucky help to get it going, claiming pretty astronomical number of tourists will be visiting his 'Ark Park'.  Kentucky jumped in and offered several forms of help.  While I disagreed, my initial disagreement was more based on not trusting kennie ham and knowing kennie was the one who drew up the tourist figures and not an objective party fed that mistrust.

What happened next was kennie started advertising for employees at his new park, he did it through his Answers in Genesis ministry and was inflicting several requirements on applicants, like signing his statement of faith.  (Kentucky Common Sense Part II) That flew in the face of complying with the employment laws he promised he would follow, you know the ones about not discriminating based on a number of factors, including religion.  So you can see that kennie not only wanted state assistance ($$), but he wants to discriminate in hiring, of course Kentucky pulled their support -- as required by law.

Aside from the fact little kennie trying to paint himself as the victim of religious discrimination, he apparently also has a couple of pet lawmakers trying to 'help' him again.  This time by extending summer vacation so there would be more time for people to visit his ark park.  Are you kidding me?  Why be so covert, why don't they just pass a law making a visit to kennie's abortions mandatory?  Does kneeling before kennie a requirement to win elections in Kentucky?

Kentucky, isn't it time to stop?  If kennie's tourist numbers are right, he shouldn't need any help.  If his numbers are off, then he deserves to foot the bill.  In any event, the State of Kentucky needs to draw a hard line and tell kennie that he and his ministries are on their own.  If you don't think his ark park is a ministry, you might remember this from his original job application:

"Our work at Ark Encounter is not just a job, it is also a ministry. Our employees work together as a team to serve each other to produce the best solutions for our design requirements. Our purpose through the Ark Encounter is to serve and glorify the Lord with our God-given talents with the goal of edifying believers and evangelizing the lost."

It is nothing but a ministry, and it's time the State of Kentucky ends any subsidies.