County that shelled out tax rebates for creationist Ken Ham's Ark museum 'teetering on bankruptcy'

[DonViejo]

Source: RawStory



BRAD REED
27 FEB 2017 AT 13:44 ET

When Grant County, Kentucky decided to shell out as much as $18 million in tax incentives to creationist Ken Ham’s Ark Encounter museum, it made a bet that it was going to become a major tourist attraction.

Instead, as local news station WKYT reports, the Ark hasn’t brought in nearly as much money to the area’s economy as once projected, and the county itself is now “teetering on bankruptcy.”

“It’s been a great thing but it’s not brought us any money,” Grant County Judge-Executive Steve Wood said while taking a break during a recent budget meeting, according to WKYT.

Grant County faces a major budget shortfall that Wood has said might have to be solved through a combination of a 2% payroll tax and job cuts to the county’s workers.

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/2017/02/county-that-shelled-out-tax-rebates-for-creationist-ken-hams-ark-museum-teetering-on-bankruptcy/

[titaniumsalute]

1. So essentially

County employees will be paying for the Ark Encounter. However, they will see it is a God's way of making them tithe more and they'll be fine with it of course.

[dembotoz]

2. only flood is red ink

[NurseJackie]

23. Ha!! :-D

[calimary]

45. LOVE it!!!

[NewJeffCT]

3. It's Gods Will

that they go bankrupt, obviously.

[PoiBoy]

7. +1,000,000... n/t

[Mendocino]

4. Help is on the way.

To boost attendance, Kim Davis will appear in an exhibit with all her ex husbands.

[calimary]

46. Let me guess. She'll be featured in the Whore of Babylon exhibit.

[Hortensis]

68. Sorry, for these folk Hillary owns that role. Of course.

Looks pretty good.
?w=500

[njhoneybadger]

5. I guess God has decided not to bless them.

[Aristus]

6. If only someone had told them that mixing politics and religion was a bad idea...

If only...

[ToxMarz]

8. Guess it's time to install an emergency manager

Time to poison their water, give away all their public lands and infrastructure, and close the schools. That'll fix it!

[snooper2]

9. Why put the rip-story link... Just post the actual article link

http://www.wkyt.com/content/news/Grant-Co-leaders-Ark-Encounter-doesnt-live-up--414791203.html

[Bengus81]

10. Good plan!! Lay people off and then foist a TAX increase on others to pay for this religious nut job

CON job. Coming next,a new "Flat Earth" museum complete with ships going over the edge! Sam Brownback of Kansas to do the dedication.

[Panich52]

11. So there is retributiin f/ violating Establishment Clause...

Unfortunately, those who were against the offense are caught up in the punishment.

[Javaman]

12. I predicted 3 months ago that in 5 years...

the "ark" will be a waffle house.

[Chakaconcarne]

37. Actually... That would be the better idea!

[Javaman]

38. of course it would be. :) Waffles!

everyone likes them regardless of religious bent.

[concreteblue]

48. Nope.

I know some people here in Lexington waiting to snap it up for a Casino and betting Parlor.

[Javaman]

69. oh good one, better yet.

I can see that.

[trusty elf]

13. teetering....

[img][/img]

[benld74]

14. Wondered what bankruptcy looked like visually,,,,,

[old guy]

16. I love it!

[PJMcK]

22. I like the giraffes! (n/t)

[calimary]

49. Oh no! Poor giraffes!

[Angry Dragon]

15. idiots abound

[Xolodno]

17. Apparently they didn't read the part in the Bible where...

...Jesus whipped the bankers and money changers. Making a profit off of God is a no-no.

[calimary]

47. Or the parable of the rich young man.

OR the Beatitudes. Nowhere in there does it say "Blessed are the rich, OR the CON artists."

[Xolodno]

54. While were at it...

...how about when Jesus said the woman who gave two pennies to the money box gave more than the two rich guys before her.

If "conservatives" actually read the book they profess to follow, there wouldn't be any more "conservatives". But they make Matthew 25:35-40 not prophetic, but real. Atheist's and Agnostics will end up in heaven before them....and the book Apocalypse of Peter infers the compassionate will get them out of their perdition.

Or how about Jesus being essentially a vagabond who lived off of handouts.

They don't believe in the very thing they say to preach.

*gets off soapbox*

[calimary]

62. EXCELLENT! That's my favorite - Matthew 25:35-40 or 45.

"The least of these." These holier-than-thou phonies need to read their New Testament a wee bit more closely. And then look in the mirror, and read it aloud to themselves - WHILE they're looking in the mirror.

[brooklynite]

18. I think it was a reasonable assumption to make...

However you felt about the Creation museum, the Ark encounter should have drawn in suckers from all over Christendom.

[LiberalFighter]

33. Apparently there were either not enough suckers...

or there weren't enough suckers that had the money to go there.

[erronis]

35. It's not hard to separate zealots from their money

Apparently the "reasoning" part of the brain is not well-connected to the idolatry part. Don't care if you're a supposed xian, a muslim, an irrational non-theist. Once the mouth starts spewing credo, the human consciousness shuts down.

Same pattern in gamblers and others that like to cheat. They "know" that they are alright, OK - that they can get away with the insanity. (I know for other reasons...)

[brooklynite]

36. I think the big problem was that there wasn't anything else for people to do...

...at least Jim Bakker's "Heritage USA" had a water slide.

[Archae]

39. Except "Heritage USA" is in ruins.

http://www.tommyandjames.net/heritageusa.html

[progressoid]

50. Looks like a nice place for a family outing. Maybe get baptized while you're there.

[hibbing]

53. I used to watch PTL in its heyday

Purely for entertainment purposes, and entertaining it was. Tammy Faye with her two inches of makeup on balling her poor little eyes out every five minutes. It was all a matter of time before the whole thing collapsed.

Thanks for sharing the link, rather...sad.


Peace

[JHB]

63. Too big and too specific a sheep-shearing operation...

Too much depended on the **ahem** faithful **ahem** going to the expense of traveling there to be fleeced. Even the blinkered have to decide if travel expenses are worth it, and even if they do they could easily just put it off until some "one of these days" in the future.

Too much overhead in one spot, and little opportunity for repeat business (how many could be expected to be so in love with creationist Disneyland that they see it again and again?).

The investors gambled and lost, but any government official who played that game with public money (dressed up as tax breaks) should be run into the ground politically, and prosecuted if applicable.

[Roland99]

19. Why not send an invoice to the Almighty?

[Kimchijeon]

20. you get what you pay for

a big pile of nothing

[hatrack]

21. Are we learning now? Are we paying attention?

Not enough attention, I'd say.

[BobTheSubgenius]

24. I'd have thought dinosaur rides would be much more popular.

[JHB]

67. If it was just a dinosaur ride park, it might be...

...but the very nature of the thing chops off potential visitors. The people who will dutifully sit through church on Sunday won't be too thrilled to do it with a wonder-wheel. And the people who take their Church seriously don't want a tilt-a-whirl inside it.

[elmac]

25. stupid is as stupid does nt

[Lotusflower70]

26. You know what this means don't you?

We are doomed. It's the end times. At least the people that were convinced President Obama was the anti-Christ would say that.

[PsychoBabble]

27. God. Has. Spoken. nt

[yellowcanine]

28. Ark tax + plastic dinosaur tax should raise some money.

[dalton99a]

29. Simple solution: Pray harder.

[TexasProgresive]

30. Ironic that his name is Ham whose son Canaan was cursed by Noah

King James Bible Genesis 9:25
And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.

[Koinos]

31. The county is -- as we say -- "under water."

[ProfessorGAC]

32. "It's Been A Great Thing..."

Then what are you complaining about, Woody? You have a great thing going. Or, could it be that you don't really give a whit about that biblical nonsense but figured it was a way to pull in money by fleecing the masses?

[bucolic_frolic]

34. It's a miracle I tell you

They haven't found a way to merge religion with accounting fraud yet?

[NCjack]

40. You know that the scam has failed when the final

futile act is to sustain it with payroll taxes and tax incentives to operate. Time for the residents of Grant Co., KY to smarten up and stop the foolishness. Oh, and also run Ken Ham out of town on a dinosaur.

[Squinch]

41. Just more proof that, though wing nuts are loud and shocking in their stupidity, there simply aren't

that many of them.

Not even enough to keep a wing nut amusement park open.

[Solly Mack]

42. "Its been a great thing but its not brought us any money." An idiot says what?

shell out as much as $18 million in tax incentives...made a bet that it was going to become a major tourist attraction.... county itself is now “teetering on bankruptcy.”

[MineralMan]

43. They'd better start praying hard, I guess.

They could ask Ken Ham to pray for them, too. That ought to do the trick, don't you think?

Still, if God sends down a flood, maybe Ham's Ark will be of some use, assuming it would float.

[MineralMan]

44. Maybe a theme part based on Lot and his Daughters would

work better. PillarsofSaltLand, they could call it, with re-enactments of the whole thing. Pornish stuff does well in the Bible Belt, I hear.

[Tanuki]

61. How about Jephthah and his daughter? That would give them something to think about. eom

[MineralMan]

65. Yes. A good example.

In a patriarchal society, such a sacrifice might not have been extraordinary at that time. Look at the honor killings of daughters in some backwards Muslim cultures, even now. That story causes lots of dispute among biblical scholars. Did Jephthah really sacrifice his daughter as a burnt offering. Did that deity allow such a thing? Its a difficult question, indeed.

[blue sky at night]

51. You have to wonder....

about people who live in K E N tucky....with the fucked up idiots they keep sending to Washington and all....just saying!

[Docreed2003]

52. Imagine that...

You waste a boatload of money on an attraction that is based on folklore (until modern evangelicals began claiming the bible was literal that was what the Noah story was considered), you fill that attraction will absolute horseshit like the world is 6 thousand years old, and throw in a dose of absolute idiocy by putting dinosaurs into said attraction, and you're surprised no one wants to shell out money to come to BFE Kentucky to visit your bullshit attraction?? Amazing....amazingly stupid

[Scruffy1]

55. So they handed these nuts $62,000,000. 00

This whole thing was always a shell game. If it fails, which is likely eventually, the county will still have to pay off the bonds. In the meantime it has to provide fire, police protection and of course infrastructure without getting a dime of property tax. This was besides the $18,000,000 the state handed to them. I'm going to Kentucky and build a Flying Spaghetti Monster Museum and Peep Show. I'll never have to work again. i wonder how much the judge charges who made the decision on the 18 million. I need to know so I can put it in my plan. Right know I'm assuming 10%, but they might be cheaper and more competitive in Kentucky. Fooling the locals is apparently no problem.

[Ilsa]

56. Let them suffer a bit.

If you bail them out, they'll give all credit to god and start another goofy, expensive project.

[Fritz Walter]

57. Why not make the access road a toll road?

Each pick-up truck, RV and horse-drawn carriage would be charged a few dollars going to and from the Ark.

Simple, huh?



Oh, wait...

[JDC]

58. Well the upside is that when climate change makes the seas rise to kentucky

The folks in that town will be saved by the Ark. Until then, it is about to have the lights turned off.

[Ligyron]

59. But those dinosaur vs giants and humans were some of the best stories in the bible!

So sad that flood killed Jebus tho'.

[Turbineguy]

60. It's all those heathen libtards

who don't swallow this shit.

Maybe there's hope after all?

[kimbutgar]

64. Good! local governments should not fund religious crazy ideas.

[dem4decades]

66. Hope they don't get sick about it. They're

Losing healthcare too.