Noah's Ark park takes Grant County for a ride

Posted 9 August 2011 by Matt Young

A reader sent me this link with the subject line above. The state and the county have committed $40 million in tax credits, as well as other perks, to a for-profit venture to build an Ark Park in order to spur "economic development." Someone may correct me, but unless I am mistaken such enticements for sports stadiums and other ventures almost never pay for themselves. Besides, a state senator notes at the bottom of the article, the developer said it did not need the incentives, so why were they offered? See also an earlier article here.

11 Comments

https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawlEeMeZ3zKLRoRaOrAKRE9zAUknjctC9wk · 9 August 2011

Badger3k here - since movable type refuses to let me use my name, I have to get this mess. Is the same screwed up system that Pharyngla uses the standard here now? Guess I'll stick to not commenting after this.

Anyway, I made a few comments, but reading some of them is sad. They are still touting the fraudulent (or is discredited a better term?) visitor and employment numbers that were given to the government. However, the article says that:

"According to a consultant hired by the state tourism department, the project is expected to draw nearly 1.4 million visitors a year from all over the United States to see Noah's Ark, a Tower of Babel and a village built to look like cities described in the Bible.
The developers, called Answers in Genesis, based their financial projections in part on the success of a previous venture, the Creation Museum in Boone County. Since the museum opened in 2007, owners said, more than 1 million people have visited."

Since this is 2011, doesn't that mean that the museum has averaged approx 250K visitors each year? How does that relate to a six-fold increase for this park? I would wager that a lot of the people going to the Creation Museum are skeptics and atheists going for a lark, and I can't see them going to the Noah's Ark Theme Park. I could be wrong, though.

https://me.yahoo.com/a/JxVN0eQFqtmgoY7wC1cZM44ET_iAanxHQmLgYgX_Zhn8#57cad · 9 August 2011

The reduced property taxes will generate far more revenue than the current raw land, Skinner said.

And the ignorance it spreads will be far greater as well. It's not like you can just sit back and expect ignorance to propagate on its own. Knowledge just might seep in. For all I know, in economic terms this may be no worse than other tax incentives (the trouble on that score is that no one really knows). In terms of Menckenesque celebration and flaunting of rank prejudice and superstition in the face of science and knowledge, it's about on the level of making a theme park based on the display of torture instruments to Galileo. Kentucky pays to expand its lead in ridicule-inducing tourist facilities. Glen Davidson

Mike Elzinga · 9 August 2011

From that link to the article:

Director Wade Gutman was not available for comment Monday, but he told the Grant County News late last month that part of the $195,000 the authority paid to Answers in Genesis was to make up for the fact that word leaked out about the project, causing land prices to double. The authority also paid some of the sales tax on the property.

It appears that Ken Ham and Associates have learned from George Bush how to get the public to pay for sports stadiums and theme parks. And who do you suppose leaked word about the project? AiG was already hinting about this long before we heard anything about getting "incentives" from the government. If you can get a governmental agency to give you money to compensate for your “loss,” why not leak your intention to buy up a bunch of cheap land?

https://me.yahoo.com/a/JxVN0eQFqtmgoY7wC1cZM44ET_iAanxHQmLgYgX_Zhn8#57cad · 9 August 2011

I would wager that a lot of the people going to the Creation Museum are skeptics and atheists going for a lark,

If you read of the visits that skeptics have made, the great majority of visitors do seem to be earnest Christians going to "learn the truth" about teh Flood, and indoctrinating their poor children in the beauty of Divine Genocide. The market of the gullible and ignorant who wish to remain so is not small. PT Barnum knew that. Whether a theme park based on slaughtering people via an "act of God" will be popular does, I think, remain in question. Glen Davidson

circleh · 9 August 2011

Badger3k said: Badger3k here - since movable type refuses to let me use my name, I have to get this mess. Is the same screwed up system that Pharyngla uses the standard here now? Guess I'll stick to not commenting after this.

Or you could create a Wordpress blog and use its domain name to comment with, as I do. Dale Husband

https://me.yahoo.com/a/XRnHyQl8usUn8ykD1Rji0ZXHNe.9lqmg3Dm7ul96NW4vxpbU3c_GLu.k#d404b · 9 August 2011

sounds like a buch of neoptism and cronyism going on in KY - I wondor how many of those officials go to the same chuch as the developers -

whom did they buy the land from? for how much - what are the tax implications? - the xtra 200K for the "leak" seems suspicious to me -

the only state money that I can wrap my head around as being justified are the interstate hwy improvements - that has the benefit of avoiding cogestion when the rubes show up (if this thing ever get built) - the 'museum' claims it gets 2-300K visitors/year (a number I am skeptical of)- how far will someone drive to go to this? I hope/predict epic failure

also - WTF are the local officials thinking - $40M in incentives to maybe get 900 jobs? (some part time/seasonal) they'd spend the same $$ picking 1000 random residenst and giving each $40,000.00 and I bet when that money got spent it would have a better economic impact on the area than this theme park!

Karen S. · 9 August 2011

The market of the gullible and ignorant who wish to remain so is not small. PT Barnum knew that. Whether a theme park based on slaughtering people via an “act of God” will be popular does, I think, remain in question.

They lack the faith to build an ark that actually floats. They lack the nerve to show the aftermath of the flood-- stinking bloated corpses. What is holding them back?

Henry J · 9 August 2011

They lack the nerve to show the aftermath of the flood– stinking bloated corpses. What is holding them back?

The EPA?

https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawlEeMeZ3zKLRoRaOrAKRE9zAUknjctC9wk · 9 August 2011

Karen S. said:
The market of the gullible and ignorant who wish to remain so is not small. PT Barnum knew that. Whether a theme park based on slaughtering people via an “act of God” will be popular does, I think, remain in question.
They lack the faith to build an ark that actually floats. They lack the nerve to show the aftermath of the flood-- stinking bloated corpses. What is holding them back?

Zombies! Badger3k - I already have a blogspot blog I never use, do I really need to create another one I'll ignore forever just so I can use my handle?

raven · 10 August 2011

Badger3k - I already have a blogspot blog I never use, do I really need to create another one I’ll ignore forever just so I can use my handle?

No. If you sign up on Moveable Type on this website, Pandas, all you get is a login account that is only good for this website. It's easy, not too many bugs or anything. Took me a few minutes and that was it.

DavidK · 11 August 2011

Pregnant Fossil Suggests Ancient 'Sea Monsters' Birthed Live Young (http://news.yahoo.com/pregnant-fossil-suggests-ancient-sea-monsters-birthed-live-180405291.html). This fossil was found in Kentucky

Must have fallen off of the ark.