DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Palus Politicus Creationists Sell Christian Theme Park To Themselves To Avoid $700,000 In Taxes

http://deadstate.org/kentucky-officials-...ion-tax-rebate/
Kentucky officials strip Ken Ham’s ‘Ark Encounter’ exhibit of its $18 million tax rebate

By Sky Palma July 21, 2017
Ken Ham and his fellow young earth creationists behind Kentucky’s “Ark Encounter” exhibit are locked in a dispute with the county who they claimed would benefit from the attraction.

Earlier this week, the Friendly Atheist‘s Hermant Mehta reported that Williamsburg, Kentucky officials decided to charge the Ark Encounter a $0.50 “safety fee” for each ticket sold, amounting to $700,000 that the Ark Encounter would owe the city each year. But according to Ham and his organization, they should be exempt from the tax since they are a non-profit ministry.

But as Mehta points out, the Ark Encounter “has legally been a for-profit business in order to receive a number of tax incentives from the city and state. … It’s not a church; it’s a money-making tourist attraction.”


Nevertheless, Ham and his cohorts came up with an interesting scheme to avoid the tax.

From the Lexington Herald Leader:

… 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.

But the plan didn’t have its intended effect. On July 18, the Kentucky Tourism, Arts, and Heritage Cabinet sent a letter to the Ark Encounter’s lawyers, informing them that as of July 10, they were “in breach of its Tourism Development Agreement… with the Commonwealth.”

“On July 10, 2017, the Tourism, Arts, and Heritage Cabinet… became aware of a quit claim deed transferring the Ark Project land, with all the privileges and appurtenances to the same, from Ark Encounter, LLC, a for profit company, to Crosswater Canyon, Inc. a non-profit company,” the letter read.

“We believe that your client is aware that they may not be eligible for state tax incentives if the Ark Project is owned by a non-profit legal entity,” the letter continued. The letter then quoted from the Ark Encounter’s own website where it states 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.”

In other words, now that Ham and his affiliates sold the Ark Encounter to a non-profit entity, they are no longer eligible for the tax rebate deal.

“…please be advised that no further incentives may accrue from sales tax imposed on sales generated by or arising at the tourism development project, as of the date of transfer of the property, June 28, 2017,” the letter continued.

Mehta writes:

The Creationists running Ark Encounter just screwed themselves out of $18 million over the next decade because they didn’t want to pay a local safety fee worth about $700,000 a year.

We already knew Creationists were ignorant about science.

Turns out they don’t know how to do math, either.



So the little shell game Hamm tried to play to screw the community out of their revenue backfired.

How much extra do you donate in taxes every year? I just want to see if you're a more of a citizen than the rest of us.

I want to know what ethics were used by the city council to suddenly impose a safety tax. Did anyone get a vote on this, or was it 'piece of the pie' ethics by the city?

I'm fairly sure this business wasn't counting on a sudden 700k cut in their profit margin.

I'm in the 25% tax bracket.

BOOM.
Damn right.
It's not a church. It's a money-maker like Toyota or Procter & Gamble.

You're a business that makes money off a story from the Bible. Pay up.

Gosh, does that make me an official witness?

If you failed to notice, they changed themselves to a nonprofit business, like a charity or church. Boom right back at you.

So, no extra tax contributions for morality sake?

From what I've read on this, it seems the city has imposed an unfair tax. Do all businesses get chaged .50 for every ticket sold? Arc Encounters have brought a lot of tourism to this small town, and it looks like they're getting gouged for their trouble.

Quote above by Rocket:



I hope not.

I think Andrew O'Hehir summed it up pretty accurately: "...religious ecstasy, however nonsensical, is powerful in a way reason and logic are not," advocates like Ham "represent a marginalized constituency with little power."

But still it is a bit frightening what many people believe. People who otherwise have jobs and appear normal during the week and in public.

Have you ever been to a church where they speak in tongues? They’re pretty much everywhere. In these churches, during the service, someone stands up and starts shouting out in gibberish for a minute or two. Then usually, the pastor interprets what they just said.

This is the Lord speaking through the person in a “long dead language” (how convenient) .

“ I AM THE TRUTH. I AM THE LIGHT. FOLLOW ME AND YE SHALL NOT BE LOST…”

It’s called “The Gift of Tongues”.

The Gift of Tongues is a real status symbol among parishioners of Assembly of God type churches.

I’ve seen it many times.

It’s my opinion that most of these people who have the Gift of Tongues are not simply “faking it”.

It’s probably some sort of hypnotic trance.

I’m not sure how they reconcile the fact that members of other churches don’t speak in tongues.

They must think they are “true believers”. Everyone else is of the devil.

“SHUNTI DIABLA KUBLI KAHN O MUNDI DIABLA TUNDES KUBLEK MANDO SHABBI”

“TAKE HUE AND THE BROWNS IN 2018.”

Sounds like Eddie Murphy's impression of James Brown:

"ShubbaDUT! Bon da peepa say... HAH!"





My sister was in one of those churches. We don't talk about that time in her life.

When I gave my life to Jesus (and let him keep it) I went to a pentecostal church up in Lorain, then moved down to Columbus for Bible school, I have to say, of the several people that I've heard speak in tongues (if you don't think this is a biblical thing, read Acts 2) only one person sounded like they were speaking an actual foreign language that no one else in the room knew, everyone else sounded like they were bouncing their tongues off the roofs of their mouths and only one person (not the same person) seemed that 'out of his belly will flow rivers of living water' as Jesus said.

There's nothing in the Bible that states that tongues have gone by the wayside in this day and age.

That is what I was getting at when I said it sounds like there is a back story we don't know about.

Do movie theaters as an example now have to pay this tax on every ticket sold?

I'm no preacher but IMO when People were speaking in tongues in the Bible like in Acts 2

4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.
6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken.
7 Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans?
8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language?
9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,
10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome
11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!”

The people were speaking ONE language but others could hear what they were saying in their own language.

That’s OK.

Regardless of what a person’s opinion is of speaking in tongues, churches that feature it are constitutionally protected to celebrate their religion as they wish.