Ark Encounter, To Avoid Paying Local Safety Fee, Now Says Its a Ministry

[muriel_volestrangler]

---snip---

Having received a sweetheart deal to build Ark Encounter there, promising to create jobs then later saying they were only available to other fundamentalist Christians, and taking money from employees’ paychecks to help repay loans, the company now wants to avoid paying a “safety fee” like other ticket-taking attractions in the area.

That safety fee would help the city upgrade its emergency response equipment — which is important if Williamstown really wants to become a tourist destination — but the folks at Answers in Genesis say they should be exempt from paying it because they’re a religious ministry.

"The fee collects a 50-cent charge on tickets in admission-based businesses within the city of Williamstown, and currently affects only three businesses: the Ark Encounter, Williamstown Family Fun Park and Main Street Gardens."
...
&quot Mayor Rick) 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. Shipp said he would craft a formal response to the appeal sometime in the coming week."

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2017/06/28/ark-encounter-to-avoid-paying-local-safety-fee-now-says-its-a-ministry/

Answers in Genesis explained at length when raising money that it's for-profit - though they've now scrubbed this from their website. It was the kind of holy writing that shouldn't be taken literally, I guess:

"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)… 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.

"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."

So, safety is someone else's concern. They've got a profit to make, and no ungodly laws are going to stand in their way.

[mdbl]

1. Answers in Genesis - ROFL

The only answers in Genesis are the earth was flat - metaphorically speaking.

[Scarsdale]

2. He tried to scam

the people in Australia. It did not work, so he headed to the American South, where the REAL Christians live. What a scam this is.

[zipplewrath]

3. We've got one of these

Religious theme park that went all "nonprofit" and tried to pass itself off as a "church". Wanted all sorts of tax exemptions. Ultimately the got alot of them, but the local government got a concession out of them that once a year they have to have a free admission day. They tend to announce it about 2 days before it happens.